Remnant of an Autumn War
by Mustafao0
Summary: The faith of 2 worlds hinges on one man's actions. The destiny of man, Faunus and demon-kind will be decided by a Khalifa who will rule the 2 worlds through the law of Allah, which calls for the banishment of evil. (Warning: Pre-canon, contains Islamic themes) (For a better explanation of the story, see the author's note on ch 1) Please leave a review or follow If you like It.
1. Prologue

**Dicslaimer:**

 **All characters, stories and music videos belong to their respected owners I. E RoosterTeeth,Oreo47 and the music artists when I am using their products in the fanfic, You are advised this fanfic has dark and mature themes along with religious and Islamic themes as well**

 **Author's Note:**

 **Hello guys, my name is Mustafa and this is my first story here on ,I hope to entertain you all and make my self worthy of patron support after I have raked in enough followers who are impressed with my writing and think I am worthy for said support.**

 **Now moving on to the story which is a crossover of Autumn War and you red that right,** _ **The**_ **Autumn war which was a flash game released back in 2007 which consisted of random army dudes with cool masks, fighting off zombies with rifles,pistols,tanks,knives and mechs. There wasn't a lot of story to the game or a universe to make the crossover successful with a plot but here is where my 12 year old shenanigans come in handy, from where I tracked down the creator of the game's Facebook I.D back in 2014,when I was 12 and asked him questions on the progress of the game as he is still posting updates of Autumn War 2 on his newgrounds account 'Oreo47'.**

 **Well he started by explaining the basic of the story that the world had gone to hell and back after the appearance of these witches, who could summon the dead, demons and other supernatural entities like everything collapsed and a private military faction had overthrown the local government while seizing all of their assets thanks to the fall of the local governments while also some religious things being thrown in there while instead of me making It Christian, I will make It Islamic but I will leave the rest of the plot for the story.**

 **Obviously, I will be taking some liberties of the AW story and the RWBY storyline as well to flesh out the AW part of the crossover by making the first 2 chapters and inter connected tid-bits down the line as world building chapters for Autumn War. In my opinion the Author's Note was a necessity in hopes of explaining you guys the situation of the story and do so without scaring you guys thanks to Aztec fan for allowing me to adopt his story along with the authors in my favourited stories sections as they allowed me to help grow as a writer.**

 **Now without further a due, lets begin this story with a Bismillah.**

* * *

 **2021,14** **th** **Feburay.**

 **The city of Madinah,03:27am.**

Markus rose from his bed with a stiffening yawn, his body was mostly covered with sweat due to recounting past traumatic events of his life which consisted of fighting off satanic madmen, demons and witches who knew how to shoot guns, bite, claw, stomp and cause general pain and suffering to anyone who doesn't bows down to them and consider them "God". By 'anyone' being Markus's own body as not an inch of his body was spared by the pain and suffering caused by proved to help Markus out in the long run however as the amount of combat experience and pain tolerance had made him a battle hardened 10 ft. warrior and general who could lead with an iron will against the enemies of Allah and could ruthlessly destroy his enemies. His face had a narrow jawline, no facial hair and had short black hair with a military hair cut on. He had a tanned-muscular physique with 6 packs on his chest and a lot of muscle-mass on his arms and body, making him look athletic and attractive in some cases.

All of the enemies that he had to fight were created after the, cataclysm event had appeared 3 years prior and had taken the world by a storm. Markus could remember It as clear as day as 6 black hell fire meteorites came soaring from the sky in night time after the last fast of Ramadan in first sight It would fool any astronomer If they took a glance at It and would had noted It down as an anomaly but true faithed Muslim Imams and astronomers started spewing out warnings as soon as they saw the meteorites for what they truly were.

They housed witches, who gave out a sinister aura of dark liquid surrounding them to any firm faithed muslim by displaying horrifying imageries of death, carnage and satanic rituals to them, they were summoned by a hidden order known as 'The Black Hand', which was a group of deranged satanists. Some headed there warnings of the Imam and astronomers while many ignored them until the witches fell on to Major cities of countries such as Pakistan,America,Russia,China,Israel and Germany. For, Markus the meteorite aimed for Pakistan landed in his city,Karachi.

It was an over populated coastal city and a significant trade hub for the country and was the epicentre of development by the federal government, as most powerful families and other third parties which controlled the government of Pakistan lived over there. The city was 3,780 km² wide and divided into 4 main areas. First being Defence, which was a luxurious residential area for the elites and successful, filled to the brim with Victorian era houses and all around had a modern feel to second main area was Ghulshan-e-Iqbal which was a luxurious commercial area, It basically had sky scrapers, hotels, malls and other main attractions of the city. The third and fourth areas which were Nazimabad and North Nazimabad were the very definitions of slums, incomplete building and infrastructure with little to no utility and services and had a serious law and order situation due to the high poor and needy population taking out their frustrations.

Markus during that time was in North Nazimabad and was a part of a well middle class family. He was a anti-social 16 year old and was the very definition of a unreligious,depressed,7 foot tall, couch potato who was sad at the state of his Ummah/community as everyday he would turn on the news, he would see the true spirit of Islam, lost in the hearts of Muslims every where and saw his religion becoming nothing less than a corrupted husk of It's former sense. It was a saddening ordeal for Markus to see all of this, not only that the Muslim leaders were throwing the Muslim Ummah in a pitiful state of anarchy as Muslims were allowing non-believers and other crazies to pillage, murder and rape their own people without any some were supporting them in said activities as well.

For this state of the Ummah, the Muslims had none other than themselves to be blamed as a well-educated and powerful Muslims who could take the fight to the enemies of Islam, were busy in entertaining themselves and forgoing their responsibilities and opted to live a rich and care free life instead of helping their was alive in name only, those that thought were helping through petty little "protests" and social media campaigns were ironically enough worsening the situation by getting an armed and powerful response from their oppressors while accomplishing nothing at all.

Markus during that time felt guilty for not doing anything to the point that he had become numb to the suffering around him, done to him and not even caring of doing anything about It due to every adult figure in his life was nothing less than a lifer or a person with no spine thus ruining his confidence. He started waiting for some sort of hammer of Allah to come from the sky and strike the Ummah for staying in a pitiful state of cowardice and inaction. Hell, Markus craved for something like that to the point his Prayers to Allah, called for Allah to deliver the promise that he made in the beginning of Surah Ibrahim which said "And never think that Allah is unaware of what the wrongdoers do. He only delays them for a Day when eyes will stare [in horror]."He then dismissed those thoughts with a scowl and focused on his Date/food.

* * *

After the Imam had started announcing Maghrib prayer, which signalled the Muslims to break their fasts. Markus immediately felt a sense of dread, despair and a feeling of something watching him. He immediately fled to the roof of his with his phone out and started surfing the internet for news. He found a Breaking news cover from a news website. The news website was reporting through a live stream of a person near the site and showed that a pale white woman with a black dress had fallen from the skies, on the newly built motorway connecting Nazimabad and North Nazimabad.

Her arrival had caused several cars to pile up around her, with cracks sported on the ground she landed on along with a thick hue of dust covering the area

The woman had an uneasy sphere of influence around her which caused onlookers who were wearing a mixture of kurta shalwar(Pajamas,Long sleeved shirt that end on knees) and regular pant/shirt wearing people to back away.

The traffic police in the area were unnerved by her, to the point they approached her with weapons drawn. The woman merely shot an innocent smile at their gesture.

She than crossed her arms and said with a clear cut yet distorted voice "Consider me, my sisters and the order of the Black Hand as your gods and you will be spared." She said with a wave of her hand.

The passers-by at that time sent each other confused and nervous glances until the lead traffic police officer near her broke the silence with a stoic voice. "Woman don't be foolish enough to ask a question like that, we have one God and he is Allah". Puffing up his chest while saying so.

The Woman merely scoffed at the statement and said " **Is that really so? Well that won't matter anymore as you will soon realise how useless he really is and besides hypocrites like you need only an example of power to bend over to our will.** "

Before anyone could comprehend what she had said, her eyes had turned to red iris, with black veins covering her exposed skin. She then lifted her hands up to the skies by her side and after that everyone's eyes widened.

The woman's clothes had liquefied into a black blubbering substance, which had shot up to the height of 840 meters and had engulfed the entirety the small section of the motor way she was on as well as everything and everyone near her. The person recording the event immediately ducked to cover thinking it was a bomb but soon brought his attention to the jet fuel black pillar in front of him.

For 5 minutes nothing happened as the pillar swirled violently like a tornado of evaporating black miasma until suddenly a wave of smoke erupted from It which covered the entirety of Karachi. After that blood-stained feathers started materialising out of thin air and started falling from the sky, illuminating the sunset sky while doing so. They had a heavenly glow to it yet held an unexplainable sense of sadness to It, as If an army of great or protective figures had died.

It didn't take long for people to put two in two together on what this woman, no witch had slain in masses. Soon people replaced fear with anger but as soon as those emotions had built up, they were replaced with despair immediately as the pillar started shooting out large balls of black liquid all over Karachi, multiple fires and explosions erupted near the area where the balls landed around with sounds of roaring, the feed immediately cut off as one of the balls came towards the man recording the ordeal.

Markus immediately dropped his smartphone and whipped his head to where the vortex was and could only mutter one thing as a ball of black hellish liquid came soaring towards him,"Allah".

* * *

He immediately blacked out as dark flames engulfed his house and sent him rag-dolling off the roof of his house and was abruptly buried in a pile of debris from his former home.

Hours later he awoke to the sounds of screaming, explosions and flesh being ripped apart. He quickly started lifting debris off of him and to his surprise managed to do so, albeit wincing painfully due to the wounds on his arms, torso and head, while not noticing the faint white glow around him or the people in a dazed state.

The area was covered in fire with debris littered every where, a 3-story tall demon stood in front of him, It was red in colour, It's upper body beefy, muscular and had enough strength to rip a tank in half, Its legs were hunched forward and they had hooves on them along with two horns sticking out of Its head and had a thick layer of bones covering It's eyes and had It's teeth biting into a body. It was aptly named the 'Chimera' for Its reputation as a hulking hard to kill beast.

Behind him were his Markus's parents, folks who were known to be quiet and nonviolent were made into abominations of their former selves. The skin around their bodies had started to peel of, revealing humanoid bony structure to break off from their fleshy cages. There was flesh only inside areas inside the skull, legs and ribcage. Their hands and feet had claws which had a faint dark aura and outline to them as they moved in to tear the body of their neighbour they were feasting on, the eyes themselves were the definition of red glowing hatred. Markus was stunned and shocked at seeing what his folks had become, he even tried calling out their names a few time but saw that they were more focused on eating the body than responding to their own son. He put two and two together and made sense that the witch had replaced his parents with monsters, the sight started to fill Markus's heart with hatred and an urge to kill the walking mockeries to Allah in front of him along with the witch after he had wiped the tears streaming down his face, thus earning them names of 'Abominations'.

Markus soon found himself in a stare off with the chimera, which roared after detecting him. He immediately started to feel a sharp sense of pain in his heart and sound of something being spoken in an unrecognisable language coming towards him. He could see the people around him being in a state of shell shock or were paralysed with the people on his right crying out in pain and agony.

Whipping his head to the right, he found the source of the gibberish he was hearing in the form of a 6-story tall abomination, which had dozens of black liquid like tendrils supporting it up to Its height, said tendrils stabbed the buildings and ground around It while the limp, eye-less abomination flailed with each stab of the tendrils allowing It mobility. The abomination was eye-less, with Its mouth spewing out un-understandable words and had Its torso revealing that It housed black liquid inside It .

Markus could momentarily make out spectral, green, humanoid entities that swirled around It. As If sensing that Markus had detected its 'passengers'. It let out a roar before all of the tendrils sticking out of It retracted out of the structure it was stabbing and pierced into the hearts of the people near It including Markus within seconds.

The tendril which stabbed into Markus's heart causing pain to flare up on his entire body. Markus saw the spectral entities started to travel through the black liquid like tendil piercing his heart. Markus saw several of the other spectral entities traveling in to the bodies of the stab victim and immediately having their eyes glow red thus earning it the name of 'Possessor'. The spectral entity aimed for Markus started resembling a masculine face with ashen white hair and started choking Markus with his hands.

Markus felt his soul being torn asunder ten times over with the ever increasing pain in his heart and instead of screaming out in pain, he clenched his teeth and started mustering every will and power inside him to break the tendril piercing his heart by moving his hands into position to do so. The presumably demon seeing him struggle to break the possession of his body off started to redouble his efforts by bringing in more demons to help him.

The battle for Markus's body went back and forth for minutes, by then the stab victims had been turned into 'Black Hand Operatives' or 'mad men' who served the witches and acted as foot soldiers and champions of them down the line, they were mostly demons and souls of the people damned to hell by Allah and their behaviour was 'normal', If you ignored the fact they were lunatics, served and die for crazies.

They along with the abominations and Chimera had huddled around Markus's struggling form and carried amused expressions on their faces while talking to one another in the same unrecognisable language, before they started clapping to urge the demons vying for Markus's body.

Their clapping and carelessness however muffled the sound of approaching foot steps to Markus's location, which led to be their downfall as well as a shot rang out from an anti-material sniper rifle reduced the skull of the possessor to red mush, effectively ending the battle for Markus's body in Markus's favour.

' _BANG'_

* * *

Most of the undead whipped their heads towards the direction of their new-found enemies snarling while doing so and saw that a group of 10-man soldiers who were wearing black cameoed gear and body armour like anti-ballistic vests along with bracers, shin guards and tactical helmets. They would look like standard soldiers with M-16s, If it wasn't for the fact they had oxygen masks with red goggles on them which matched the glare of red light the undead had.

However, there was one soldier who was wearing a red beret on him and was equipped with a smoking .50 Cal sniper rifle while using the back end of a vehicle to setup the tripod of the rifle.

The rest of the soldiers were spread out and taking defensive positions amongst the vehicles and walls facing Markus, with the one wearing the beret yelling while facing Markus. "Move in and secure the objective!" His voice was muffled and had a tinge of an African-American accent to It.

The soldiers were fighting ofF 13 B. 6 Abominations and 1 Chimera. The soldiers had immediately started raining down hot lead upon the undead with pin-point accuracy through their burst fire mode and were fully utilising the 200-meter range between their targets.

The undead ignored Markus and started running towards the soldiers. The B. were running like regular humans and were letting out shouts of excitement while doing so, the abominations were doing a mixture of shambling and running with their out stretched arms and the Chimera was starting to gain moment with Its upper body tilted forward while causing the ground to shake violently with each step.

The rounds pouring into the B. was having the same effect as it would have If the rounds were being used on humans. Markus saw the effects of a kinetic force of 3 back to back rounds on a torso of a B.H.O, effectively dropping It mid-sprint while a howl of pain erupted from the B.H.O before It's red eyes stopped glowing.

The lead Abomination on the other hand was shrugging off the pain It felt when bullets slammed into It, It did stumble momentarily before restarting It's effort to rip limb from limb and charged the soldiers with all It's might before 12 rounds of an M-16 stopped It's advance.

The Chimera was shrugging off the rounds like they were nothing but each round from the anti-material rifle caused It to stumble momentarily, making It so that It was in the back of the horde.

When the undead reached the 75 meter range, they had lost about 2 Abominations and 7 B. with the Chimera slowing down due to the blood loss It was suffering from the 4 .50 Cal rounds on Its torso.

The soldiers flipped their weapons fire modes to 'Automatic' and started spraying rounds on the undead, which led to all the undead except for the Chimera to stop dead on their tracks. The Chimera was practically sprinting towards them and was closing the distance fast but the focus fire on It's leg had brought the Chimera tumbling down onto the ground, It was promptly executed by a .50 Cal round to the face. The soldiers than turned their attention towards Markus's crouched form on the ground as he was gripping his chest and started approaching him verily.

Markus during the battle was clutching his heart and was trying to make sense of the light growing on the stab wound on his heart while ignoring the battle happening in front of him. His blue shirt and black pant was drenched in blood but instead of passing out from blood loss, a calming glow had erupted from his heart, which was filled with warmth and comfort. Like a reward for something he couldn't understand.

He was approached by the red beret wearing soldier who gently removed Markus's hand covering the wound. Markus was surprised to see the wound heal Itself and the white glowing words of 'المجاهدين'(Mujahideen) written on It.

The beret wearing soldier let out a amused chuckle before reaching for his radio slung on his shoulder." Red Crown, this is Alpha squad, we have secured the warrior of God but he is in critical condition, over."

The radio blared to life with a gruff masculine voice replying with " This is Red Crown, excellent job Alpha squad, make your way for extraction near the park of the neighbourhood 3 Blocks West to you. Squads Bravo to Foxtrot are to cover your extraction, while Mantle-2 will air lift the objective out of here. Be advised that Pakistani Military forces are redirecting a convoy to you and will arrive in 5 minutes, keep an eye out for hostiles in your area and stabilise the condition of the objective sergeant, over."

"Roger that Red crown and will do over." The sergeant than proceeded to turn his face towards his men and said in a serious tone." Alright boys, form a perimeter around the area, Kowalski make sure that boy doesn't bleed to death or I am having your ass for lunch, got It." He said while jerking a thumb to Markus over his shoulder.

By then Markus had lost consciousness and blacked out. He remembered certain instances of him being loaded up on a black hawk helicopter, men in black hazmat suits operating on him inside the helicopter while behind them he could see multiple fires illuminating Karachi with It looking nothing less than a warzone as he could see brief flashes of muzzle fire, explosions and hulking figures that rampaged through the streets and general chaos every where, he swore he saw winged humanoid entities outside of the helicopter as well before blacking out permanently.

Markus remembered awaking in a field hospital with a group of soldiers and doctors around him, with various machinery around him along with drips hooked into him. He at first panicked and started hyper ventilating while recounting what happened in the past 24-hours until the same red beret wearing sergeant came and helped him calm down a bit.

The sergeant introduced himself as James Heller, he was 6'9, had broad shoulders along with a well-built body and had a tanned complexation with a shaved head. He was a part of a secret organisation known as the 'Next Gen'. On paper It was a Private Military firm which operated in the shadows and was very discreet on what It did but in reality, It was a secret Muslim order which was established in the era of the 4-Rightly Guided Caliphs, mainly during Hazrat Umar's Caliphate as they worked as a private army to protect Hazrat Hafsa, who was the caretaker of the first and only physical copy of the Quran at that time.

The order was repurposed for combating the Black Hand and protecting the greatest mujahideen of God, in this case Markus, which was prophesied by the holy prophet himself but said hadiths related to said occasion were censored by the order as they held further details on how to locate the 'Mujahideen' and feared that the Black Hand would zero in on Markus's location and kill or corrupt him. They also withheld information from Markus as well and asked him to ask again in 3 years

The Next Gen had been hiding and preparing an army of soldiers to combat the witches and the Black Hand when the time was right and had 40 regiments spread all over the middle east. They held control of areas from Jordan to Iraq and from Turkey to Oman while abolishing the local governments and rulers thanks to the chaos created by the cataclysm, basically covering a good portion of the middle east while utilising the militaries of the abandoned Muslim countries like Pakistan as had been evacuated with most of It's people and military salvaged due to It being one of the HQs of the Black Hand.

Continents like Asia and Americas were ruined due to earthquakes and other calamities while countries like Russia, China and India were doing everything in their power to fight off the undead areas not mentioned were over run or had other factions ruling them like the black hand or remnants of local governments and etc.

The planet Itself was in a state of disarray as a thick smog covered the planet while black clouds blotted out the sun, leading to vegetation slowly dying off and resting in permeant season of Autumn, leading to 3 billion deaths in the first week of cataclysm. Obviously the death rate started slowing down as the Next Gen started gaining more information on their enemy like how the witches had killed of the angels meant to keep demons and the dead at bay from rising to the earth once again thus leading to the undead rising and frequent attacks from demons and dead spirits alike after their arrival.

Not only that the Next Gen had learned that the black hand had been preparing for the arrival of their masters by weakening the Muslim Ummah, dividing them against one another and destabilising Muslim countries and armies through various covert operations, spread of false information and using political influence to increase secratisim and under the guise of Private Militaries to stay under the radar.

The next gen had also developed new anti-possession technology in the form of the E.V Helmets which are blessed goggles that fortify the soul of the person wearing It so they can fight of the spirits attacking them while also cause the red lights of the helmet to glow violently.

Markus was not feeling well at all, especially with the information dumped on him but after a few days of relaxing his nerves. He accepted the responsibility bestowed upon him by God as he was a man who was known to be simple in everything he did and besides he had enough faith in god to know that this responsibility is nothing less than honourable as he blamed himself for the cataclysm. He fell under the mentorship of James who trained him for 6 months vigorously and taught him the basics of how to shoot, fight, strategies and think tactically as well as the ins and outs of the organisation as well.

He started taking Markus with him to missions as well so the men could see Markus was a fearless leader who would fight side by side with them in the frontlines, not only that Markus suffered various scars and other wounds on his bodies which were healed by protection duas done by him with the help of other Imams as well. Markus didn't really know who the leader of the organisation was but soon found It that It was led by Imam Abdullah Amir Khan who was also an Arabian sword master and Custodian of the sword and armour set meant for Markus, which was supposedly created for his mission.

Abdullah was a bearded middle-aged man who was lightly tanned, had a body of that of a warrior and had a gruff voice as well. He wore the normal armour set most soldiers had but he also had a black cape and various red medals on his left breast. He worked under the guise of 'Red Crown' and had a personal retinue of intelligence officers under him who managed the organisation and kept it clean from the influence of the black hand.

He trained and worked Markus for 7 months while sending Markus to dangerous missions with little to no help as well. This led to Markus becoming more tolerant to pain, a better General and survival expert, more focused with his objectives, which in turn led to him being a monster on the battlefield who could fight off hordes of enemies with handful of troops while also mustering a fighting force when the situation is hopeless as well and be competent with his sword and armour set 'The Al-Khalid'.

The Sword Markus had was a slightly curved Arabian long sword which was 16 inches long, which was from his 10 ft. Perspective, a normal sword. It had the dua of protection written on the main body while the hilt was 2 inches broad and in the normal 'plus' pattern. The sword was made out of the same black stone, the holy Kaba was built out of, thus having a black colour scheme and radiating authority out of It.

Moving onto the armour, the armour was again built out of the black stone used in the Holy Kaba with the helmet of the armour having a bowl type head with a tip of a spear sticking out of It with a E.V helmet making the rest of It. This E.V helmet was unique to Markus only, as It could had night vison, heat detection and magic detection as well due to the blessings done by the Imam.

There was a black under suit made out of bluet proof material with black stone plated vest on the main torso, shoulder guards, shin guards, bracers and 2 spiked knuckled gauntlets as well along with protective normal metal boots with sound dampeners on them to conceal his footsteps, he had a utility belt which held ammo, various types of grenades, a holster for his deagle and knives which can expand and retract through mental commands. To top It off, he also had a cool black cape on him as well with the sheath of the blade on his back and an holster on his left for the scoped M-16.

All of these things made him look intimidating, especially the red eyes of his.

Markus during that same year had became the commander of the shock trooper regiment of the Next Gen and led soldiers who wore the same armour set he used excluding the cape and materials of course and used a wide arrange of weaponry like flamethrowers, shotguns, automatics, great swords to hunt down Chimera and other monstrosities and etc. It was an all men regiment and It had generally made It self the most successful regiment the Next Gen ever possessed due to the success rate of It. Hell h-

' _THUD,THUD,THUD'_

A knock on the door broke Markus out of his train of thoughts not so soon after. Markus promptly started freshening up and gearing up to answer the door without further delay.

* * *

 **Alright guys, I am trying to speed through the world building part of Autumn War as to not bore you guys to death, so next time expect a dialouge heavy chapter with various important characters as well.**

 **This is Mustafa signing out and I hope Allah blesses you all with good health, spirit and mind.**


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I own nothing and all things in this fanfic belong to their owners. Rossterteeth, Oreo47 and the respected artists (If I do use their work) respectively.**

 **AN: Hello guys Mustafa here, I am glad that I am drawing in visitors now but I would appreciate them giving reviews at the very least. As their word is what helps me to improve my writing. Now If you find my story fascinating than give me a follow. Looking back to my first chapter, It may or may not go under a rewrite as I am fast forwarding the world building segment to reach the Markus arriving in remnant part. Know without a further a due, let's start this chapter with a bismillah.**

Markus sauntered towards the door while adjusting his gauntlets and booting up his E.V helmet with a light hum. He already guessed who the person behind the door was due to his senses being boosted by his unique E.V helmet. Opening the door, he was met with the sight of his current mentor, Yazid and 2 bodyguards flanking him, which were from his force.

The man or "Jinn" as some theorise to call him, stood upright straight with his gloved hands by his side. He adorned a black stockman hat, a dark overcoat with a silver chain going around his black shirt which was a part of an openable silver round shaped locket in his left charcoal pant pocket. He had two silver Deagles inside the gun holsters of a utility belt around his waist, with ammo for It. A silver sword in It's sheath was on his back as well.

The only "Normal" parts of the man ended there as his physical appearance like a face or skin for that matter was by definition pitch black or void less to be precise as light refused to pass through his non-covered bodily features. Among his unordinary aspects was that, he seems to be giving off a foot-wide area of shadow on the surface he was standing on and said area of shadow could stop light from going in or out as well. If he focuses hard enough than he could cast shadow which stretched all over the room, making him a necessity for stealth ops.

Moving onto his eyes, they looked like the eyes of an E.V helmet with the same crimson stained glare however he didn't have said helmet on and give off the light naturally, which unnerved people even more while also increasing his supernatural factor. It honestly felt like a Jinn was trying to make himself detectable to humans by being forced to wear clothing which would help him getting recognised more easily or else he would have been a mobile shadow with two red eyes poking out.

Aside from that, he had the ability to "teleport" to areas at will and would only pop in and out during dire situations. Aside from that he was the leader of a force known as 'The Inspectors', a paramilitary force who were designed to scan and scrutinise the military and civilian populace for early signs of possession by more dangerous and experienced demons praying on very important people and evidence of betrayal by working for the Black Hand or showing inability to do your job properly If valid reasons are provided. The force is composed of inspectors who have the same appearance as Yazid himself while obviously wearing the basic body armour on with E.V helmets.

They are a secretive bunch who have recording devices and tracking equipment along with weaponry, which have anti-possession or blessed rounds chambered into them for CQC encounters as well. They have ties with law enforcement and the military, which allows them to stay in the know and muster up enough manpower and intelligence to crack down upon unsuspecting targets with the help of local soldiers and police officers.

 _'Cough,Cough'_

A sound of someone clearing forcibly coughing soon broke out Markus from his thoughts as he regarded the men in front of him.

"Aslamualikum to you all, sorry for keeping you waiting like that. I have a tendency of letting my thoughts go wild every now and then. Hope you forgive me."

Yazid merely shook his head and said "Waslam and nonsense mister Obsidian, a man like you has much to think about with the position you are in however I advise you to follow me to the meeting room immediately, we have much to discuss about as your training has completed under my mentorship." His voice smooth yet echoed at various sentences.

Speaking of his training, Markus's training mostly consisted of improving all his senses with the help of his E.V helmet. As of right know he could attain all the features of the E.V 5 helmet with out putting It on for a day or so but would later face head aches and dizziness. Yazid also helped Markus in identifying and neutralising traitors or people who would bring harm to him, improving his social skills and focusing on the destruction of his enemies more efficiently. This led to Markus becoming more like a viper who would dispatch his enemies with extreme force and agility which was really not expected of a 220-pound man to do so easily, while also better assessing the situation and expanding his tactical choices as well.

* * *

The group left Markus's quarter after exchanging more pleasantries with one another and made their way out of the 2 storied barracks facing Masjid-e-Nabwi, which was converted into a military headquarters while allowing some civilians to enter. Along the way to the meeting room, Markus exchanged pleasantries with the soldiers and civilians he met while an armed foot convoy escorted him.

Gazing around the city with snow falling here and there, Markus could feel a sense of calmness with the sea of red eyes around him and off to the distance, the city lights shone brightly into the dark with military check points along the city, directing the traffic and flow of the populace while casting an aura of security around them as well. Occasionally he could hear the roar of engines and turbines from the passing military jets and helicopters flying overhead.

The atmosphere of the people had turned serious with a slice of gloominess sprinkled in there, after the cataclysm event most people had went into depression and despair due to black magic but trips to important religious sites and mosques, helped calm people's nerves down a bit and got them working as well. Said religious sites were immune to the influence of the Black Hand, which consisted of the witches arrival Vortexes, spewing out demonic spirits which would possess the dead and would bring them to life with varying degrees of intelligence and strength, not only that they also started poisoning and destroying the local vegetation and wildlife to the point that the planet had entered an ice age. Crops and other necessities were something which required contant duas and other protections to work properly or else starvation would be an issue.

Anyone who died and allowed their body to fall into the hands of the black hand or away from a purified or religious site. Would have their souls tormented for varying amounts of times until they would become corrupted and join the Black Hand and be brought back by them. If said soul was in presence of a combat Imam. Then said Imam would allow their soul to rest peacefully by using duas known only to them, to guide their spirit.

This led to people thinking It was futile to defy the Black Hand and as such revolted against the Next Gen rule but a quick and lethal response from the military would always quell said response before It could get out of hand.

Approaching the sacred Mosque. Markus was always astonished to see the size and look of It. The Ottoman artstyle and architecture of the structure had various beautiful flower themed paintings plastered everywhere with certain pillars and walls being gold trimmed and complemented by a dash of green. The outer walls were light brown in colour with 20 archway doors on every side of the Mosque, allowing entry from multiple green dome which housed the body of the holy Prophet, Muhammad and the 4 rightly guided Caliphs of Islam, was found in the middle of the mosque with 10 minarets accompanying It in a square shaped formation to voice the Azan. This was a huge contrast to the western styled housing and hotels surrounding It.

The Giant umbrellas in the court yard were closed up due to It being night time. Various floodlights and other decorative lights illuminated the courtyard and casted a white hue to It thanks to the fog from the weather. The lights revealed 1000s of Muslims with plain white Kurta shalwar praying, eating and chatting away with all age groups. The soldiers were patrolling the courtyard with some of them being off duty and in military fatigues. If you focused hard enough you could find inspectors stalking through the crowd.

Markus saluted and exchanged pleasantries with any military personal or civilian who came towards him, as he was idolised by nearly everyone due to his heroic nature and fearlessness. All in all, it felt like a grand place to be and had an aura of sacredness booming out of It. Markus started making towards the centre of the mosque, which was cornered off from the public due to various attempts of defiling sacred graves and points of interests of the mosque from various natural and super natural means and only allowed a handful of monitored pilgrims in.

After passing through multiple check points and scanners. He was brought into a war room which was filled to the brim with various intelligence officers manning machinery and communication devices with up to date news of the war. The dimly lit nature of It was making for a grim yet serious atmosphere. Markus was ushered to a meeting room through a door, which housed various commanders, generals and previous mentors as well. The other unique person of interest Markus had failed to mention was the current general of the 'scout corps' and the wife of his 2nd mentor. Lailah Shazar. She is a woman who likes to joke around and keeps a happy go lucky type of attitude instead of the general grumpy attitude of her husband, she has a quick mind and her information gathering skills on both small and large scale levels had made her a ripe candidate to be the general of the scout corps.

The scout corps mostly had light armoured troops in camouflaged cloaks, going deep inside enemy territory to gain as much information as possible with things like enemy tactics and other vital information and is generally composed of women and blind people due to their ability of sharpening the rest of their senses. Which also compose of detecting the undead spiritually as well.

* * *

Everyone in the meeting room regarded Markus with a salute before Yazid spoke up." Alright everyone, as of right know we are getting reports of the amount of undead increasing and will likely attack from the north and East, what is the estimated status of the enemy forces attacking us?" He said while turning his head toward Lilah.

Lailah rose up and gave her report. "My men estimated a force of 2 million about to be ammased. They are said to be compromised of 10000 Chimeras which can punch through our fortifications with ease, a new type of possessor has also been spotted which can make the nearby undead more resistant to blessed rounds and practically immune to traditional weaponry and the best part is that the witches themselves have been spotted stepping into the field with D. surrounding them as well. These D. are displaying varying amounts of tactics and strategies and is projected to fight like a super human army due to some of them being heavily experimented on with witch craft and other dark sorceries. Giving them varying degrees of mutations as well."

"What is their estimated arrival time?"

"I would say a year and a half or 2, If we are lucky. Knowing our luck, I except them to be on our asses in a year." Gaining a few chuckles from the others.

Yazid turned his gaze towards Abdullah "Can we survive an attack like that, Abdullah."

With a shake of his head, Abdullah reported."We won't be able to hold off an attack like that without stopping the flow of refugees, I suggest that we draw our enemies inland to setup suitable and efficient defensive positions that won't collapse." He said while stroking his well-trimmed beard.

This had gotten Markus to butt in to the conversation "You do know that we are potentially endangering our industrial and agricultural sectors by doing so right?". Markus saddened behind his mask due to the state of the vegetation of the word and the collapse of the ecosystem all together. Meaning It was too long that he saw something fluffy and adorable, like a dog, cat or a goat. Children did fill that void however.

The annual harvest was barely scraping by as well, thanks to the rising population and influx of refugees and the war effort hogging materials left in right as well. The military was for the most part well-armed and trained but this new threat mixed in with the witches would throw them into a pickle alright.

Abdullah, merely scoffed and said "What do you propose boy and for the last time It better not be bat shit crazy." Earning some laughter from the others.

Feigning offense, Markus replied with a playful smirk. "Come now Abdullah, charging head first into certain doom and destruction is my motto. Besides If you see my battalion's survival rate than It is a sound tactic for the likes of me but with that aside, I would like to conduct surgical strikes on the location of the witches and cut off the heads of the snake."

"Like that will achieve anything, you do know that the witches are replaceable as well right due to their numbers doubling practically doubling after the cataclysm? It's the sole reason why there are so many undead in the first place ?!" Abdullah asked in an irritated voice, with nearly everyone turning their heads towards Markus.

This new piece of information caused Markus to blink a few times. As sudden realisation donned on him that he had forgot to read the file. He raised a hand sheepishly behind his neck and answered with a cough. '' I may or may not have forgotten about that fact but thank you for reminding me."

The statement was followed by stares of disbelief by nearly everyone in the room as the head of the infantry corps , Kyle Crane spoke out. "You have killed 7 of the damn things already! how the hell can you forget about something like that?".

"Well excuseeee me but my schedule consists of stabbing things, getting munched on and clawed at and making sure the dead, fucking stay dead and don't come to bite me in the ass later! As you can see It's a painful schedule" Markus retorted with irritation creeping into his mind. He had a short temper and an even a shorter duration of said temper whenever It would creep up as he knew how to supress his emotions more easily thanks to Yazid.

A minute later Markus had cooled off and was about to apologise but Kyle had other plans as he regarded Markus with a glare. "Even still, my men fought side by side with you in bringing those sluts down while making sure you stayed safe in your suicide charges, hell my own brother took one of them with him as well when you charged in there head first without a care in the world".

The answer had struck a bundle of nerves as Markus deeply remembered the gruesome scenes of horror of the mutilated bodies of the soldiers that fought side by side him in bringing the witches down, even though Markus suffered the same death inducing wounds that they did. The resolve and quick-thinking Markus showed made sure that he didn't shared their fate and instead got stronger and showed more tolerance to pain to the point that lesser abominations or weakened Chimeras can't even harm him. The man in question operated in missions which had no hopes of survival or help reaching him. His "Suicide Charges" were the main reason people and soldiers a like came crawling out of hopeless situations.

"Perhaps they should have stayed away from the frontlines and turned their uniforms in because you damn well know there was no way we would had survived, if we didn't show the balls necessary to complete the damn mission. Perhaps a quick trip to the frontlines instead of an air-conditioned office should change that?" This statement was followed with instant regret as Markus knew that Kyle was a brave man, who had lost the ability to fight due to him being injured to the point he couldn't fight anymore. Markus saw the man's face flare up with anger with a sense of hostility in the air.

Before he could respond Yazid intervened with a twisted and livid tone. **"ENOUGH! Cease your endless prattle at once, I will not stand the both of you belittling one another with petty insults. Our enemies are amassing a force which could wipe us out with ease, we have ran out of time and as such require...** some off worldly reinforcements". He answered with his tone returning to his smooth one.

The new piece of information had set forth a wave of confusion on the inhabitants of the room while replacing the tension as well, with some of them gawking at the man like he had been an alien hiding amongst them.

"Yo-You mean angels?" Markus asked with a hint of excitement in his voice.

"No, NO, those beings were always here as they protect us every now and then due to their numbers . They are only visible and interactable to the bearer of the mark of the Mujahideen i.e you but the rest of you can catch glimpses of them with your E.V helmets If you focused hard enough. Don't bother by the way as they don't really interact with you and generally ignore you, aside from that however this is information meant for Markus's ears only." With that everyone except for Markus and Yazid filed out the door.

"Now Markus, I will be sending you to a world where many mysteries and trials await you. The sentient of It are fighting off a threat very similar to our own yet the true evil we need to destroy resides in their world if we wish to stop this madness but you will have to have faith in me and your lord."

Placing a hand on Markus's forehead "By the will of Allah, Markus Obsidian is to be allowed transit to remnant with due haste, give the boy safe passage O Angels!".

With that a white vortex had engulfed Markus before he could even comprehend what was happening and reduced his world to darkness.


	3. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I own nothing as all characters and songs used in here belong to their respective owners.**

 **AN: Hello people and thank you for offering reviews and views to my story now I am going to keep this brief by saying thank you to you all for sticking around my story, now this is where hopefully the good or more interesting part starts. Now let's start this story off with a bismillah and hope Allah blesses you all.**

 **AN on update day: Sorry for taking so long but I wanted to make sure the quality was great but in the next chapter there will be combat so stay tooned for that,**

* * *

Markus found himself seated in a wooden armchair with his head spinning and his vision containing black spots in It. He knew that anything given from 'above' would be a painful ordeal as the prophet had head aches and mild fevers along with other inconsistencies whenever he had a revelation.

Looking around, Markus found himself in middle of a circular white themed room with a blossoming black rose painted on the floor. Double glazed windows surrounded the room, which illuminated strong light into It. Making It so you couldn't see the outside of It.

The light revealed a wooden desk with what appeared to be an angel in human form manning It. He had golden brushed back hair while wearing a buttoned white vest over a long sleeved white shirt and a white pant to go with his angelic fashion style. Honestly the man offered a welcoming and elderly presence to him as he typed away in a computer with a stack of files stacked on his left and a small golden desk board on his left which read the words 'Administrator'.

The angel regarded Markus with his golden eyes, a light smile on his face and offered a handshake. "Peace be upon you mister Markus, I have found nothing but praises sang from the heavens as your heroic deeds have reached everywhere. Thank you for having faith in your lord and in all of us in completing our duties and do know that rewards in heaven and blessings for you on your mission will double from here on out. We do know that the title of the official Al-Mujahideen is a cumbersome one, filled with thankless trials and demands a lot of sacrifice from you but we assure you It will be worth It in the end as the new world will provide you with long overdue rewards as well."

Blinking a few times to stop his head from spinning, Markus returned the hand shake with a smile of his own and spoke his mind. "Peace be upon you as well; however, I feel like the title has more cons to It than pros but I will endure every hardship that comes towards me, aside from that I should feel like asking you more questions regarding my life... but said feeling is dying down or isn't there anymore. Can you explain that?"

"Well the reason is simple mister Markus, life of a Muslim is nothing less than a trial to decide the fate of their next life. We can't have you getting an upper hand unless you have earned It Markus or else It will cause more problems to everyone involved." The angel made sure the warning stayed in Markus's head while leaning forward.

Markus seeing no other reason for small talk between the angel as It didn't require any human needs such as 'interaction', urged him on to business. "Well let's get down to business than shall we."

The Angel humming in approval of Markus's eagerness said "Let's get down to It all right, as of right know you will be arriving in the world of Remnant. You are currently tasked with safe guarding the lives of everyone on Remnant from external and internal threats to the point that the influence of the Black Hand and evil in general is not present in Remnant, thus leaving Remnant alone to provide Earth with much needed reinforcements. This process can and will take 5 to 10 years." The angel paused to allow Markus to process the information after a few minutes.

"You do know that I have a year left before the main threat arrives right?" Markus muttered out a reply, clearly uneased.

The administrator let out a light hearted chuckled. "Calm down Markus, time has a tendency of being nothing less than a nuisance in the eyes of our lord, he will deliver you back to your people when the time is right." He smiled to ease Markus for good measure as well.

"However, the only thing I can do is warn you of some of the things you may encounter, the rest are something you must face alone when the time comes."

His facial features and voice had taken a serious tone as he continued his explanations. "You see Markus the inhabitants in the world consists of 2 races, known as the humans and the Faunus. Faunus are humans with animalistic traits so both of them are bound to get into conflict due to basic evil influence or basic differences between one another. The sentient beings of this world have similar cultures to yours, mostly the western and Asian side of things but that's aside the point."

The administrative angel continued on by rising from his desk and going for a walk around the room. "This world is plagued by monstrosities of Its own, they are known as the Grimm. They come in various shapes and sizes, their ferocity and ruthlessness has pushed the in habitants to 4 Bastions of hope that act as inter-connected constitutional monarchies with their "Vytal Council", mostly making the decisions."

Facing Markus, the Angel continued. "The reason the inhabitants of the planet or 'Remners' for simplicity's sake have survived for so long is because they are protected by major natural gifts from Allah. With some of them being aura and dust. Aura acts as a natural barrier of light which provides protection, enhanced strength/agility and a random offensive or defensive supernatural ability like super speed, shadow clones and etc. Called semblances. Yours will be unlocked when you fight your first battle."

"Dust on the other hand are elemental crystals like electricity, fire, Ice, gravity and other yet to be discovered crystals that play a vital role in the weaponry and technologies of the Remners, as such the only thing they do rely on is dust, leaving things like petroleum and other natural resources alone. These are only 2 of the major protections I can tell you Markus as of right now. The bearer of these gifts themselves have yet to unlock their full potential but that will change as you or more specifically, the title on your chest will play a vital role in understanding the mysteries behind the gifts more easily."

Sucking in air between his teeth with a frown, he continued on. "The people have yet to receive the light of Allah but your main objective is safeguarding them from the Black Hand and evil in general. Put preaching on the back burner for now as this would stir the minds of our enemies who are everywhere, the people as of right now are celebrating a time of peace between one another after a great conflict which happened 70 years prior over different views and slavery of the faunus, but the people have practically forgotten about the threat looming outside their walls with nothing to show for. If the Grimm or the Black Hand comes knocking as they have all but abandoned fighting and view the Grimm as nothing less than feeble animals due to their arrogance except for a few that is."

The angel had his hands clasped behind his back and didn't bothered to mask disdain in his voice as he continued. "A new front is being fought in the shadows with 2 major parties and with a lot of 3rd parties thrown into the mix. This front is a necessity for your survival but the secrecy of the fight has led to no vital results being made and both sides are required to bring this conflict out in the open to end It. Within time you will be dragged into the fight itself and will act as the deciding factor of It however be warned as the major powers in this world have no clear owner to It and will likely be besieged by many 3rd parties like ravenous hounds, dragging millions into needless bloodshed. Not only that the side you will be allying with will have Its leader being a cursed yet powerful individual, as such caution is advised while dealing with him. As he has grown unstable and untrustworthy of pious men like us over the years. "

Returning to his desk, the angel calmed himself before continuing on. "As such to begin your sacred mission, we will drop you to the 'Kingdom of Atlas'. A militaristic kingdom with the finest military Remnant has to offer as such It is attacked both internally and externally by our enemies. For now, this all I can convey to you but find a place to settle in Atlas, show the people on why you are called the Soldier of Allah and protect them at all costs. You will be given a tablet and equipment as well for further questions related to your mission. For now, farewell Markus and remember to trust no one but your lord." Without a second's notice, light molded onto Markus and sent him away from the Administrator.

* * *

 **YEAR:** **NOVEMBER 1ST/2053rd VYTILIAN YEAR**

 **REGION:** **CAPITAL OF ATLAS (MANTLE)**

 **LOCATION:** **ATLAS ACADEMY, HEADMASTER'S QUARTER ROOM**

 **DAY:** **THURSDAY**

 **TIME:** **0:00**

Lieutenant General James Ironwood was not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination. He required. No _needed_ his sleep after a taxing day of working for the current headmaster of Beacon, Ozpin. As such the summon from the security council of Atlas to him and nearly all military commissioned officers had brushed his already strained nerves the wrong way.

For the undoubtedly long meeting, he poured himself some much-needed caffine from his kitchen and made sure that his uniform was wrinkle free and his appearance was up to par by military standards, before going out of his room and taking the elevator from his office to the ground floor of the academy.

His uniform was a double breast pocketed white shirt decorated with eye catching promotions like the medal on his left breast which a star with 3 sabers sprouting from Its lower half, two 5 stared promotion pads on his shoulders and a plethora of standard military medals on his right breast pockets. His white pants were simple and only held a holster for his powerful revolver.

Ozpin was a man of mystery who had a humble yet sharp mind in dealing with threats to humanity. The man's charismatic nature and wisdom had swooned James over to his inner circle along with other military and intelligence personals from Kingdoms around Remnant, to fight of Salem and her minions in secrecy.

Ozpin had tasked James with setting up a spy network to check on the whereabouts of the spring maiden and the Black Queen's agents in Atlas, the task was a daunting one but a very basic network was setup by the end of the day thanks to his friends in Atlas.

Riding down the elevator, he made a quick phone call to his bodyguards and fellow friends who were probably heading towards the Atlas Military HQ anyway.

Stepping out of the elevator an into the floor. James felt the familiar feeling of the 6 km wide, cubed education block of the academy where his office (the pillar in the middle of the block), state of the ark training facilities and class rooms along with the teacher's and visitor's lounge were present. The block was a 4 storied cuboid building which had a mono pitched roofing style that pointed to the courtyard and looked similar to the rest of the 2 blocks of the academy.

The architecture had a metallic yet spartan feel to It which showed of the wealth and discipline of Atlas through the subtle use of white and blue color schemes which worked wordlessly with the well-maintained walls and floors of the academy. Various portraits, statues and info kiosks of previous servicemen were spread all over the ground floor to give good impressions to visitors and students alike.

Saying a quick hello to the staff member manning the information desk, he marched out of the block greeting various senior students, staff and soldiers standing guard along the way, while tossing the coffee cup in a dust bin after finishing It.

Instead of expecting the usual calm snowy weather, James was instead introduced with a face full of frost which felt like tiny needles picking away at his skin and the cacophony of sound annoyed him to no end. He tried to open his eyes but they were soon forced shut by the onslaught of the wind and snow raging about. As such he raised his free hand over his head to partially allow some visibility.

Looking around he saw the entire courtyard covered with snow. The security protocols during a bad weather had kicked in with floodlights installed all over the academy opening up, the Atlassian Knight 130 security droids had been activated to replace the human soldiers outside and take their positions.

Squinting due to the unpresented blizzard hampering his vison, he could see the block that housed the student's dorm rooms, medical wing, stationary shops and the amphitheater on his left while the block with the armory, the training arena and other educational necessitates was on his right.

The flag poles with the flags of Atlas on each end of the courtyard were fluttering violently due to the wind with a blueish foggy hue being created in the area, the blue light pollution of the capital casted a dark blue cover over the clouds of Atlas, promptly blocking the shattered moon behind It.

Right in front of him was the main military atlas headquarters, it was 5 km, 3 storied structure with Gable roofing and dormers on Its roof. It had bullet proof windows on It's side with shutters on them, while hidden security cameras were dotted around the statues of former legends in various poses and actions on Its entrance and roof.

The entrance Itself had 6 porticoes, with a wide marbled stairway leading up to It. The flags of Atlas, other military forces and to James's dismay, the Schnee Dust Corporations well detailed snow flake emblem, as he wasn't really fond of the man behind It.

Hoofing It to the HQ, he met his personal body guards along the way and trooped It to the HQ. As soon as he passed through the security checkpoint of the HQ, he was met by some familiar faces.

His first friend while joining the Atlas military was John Nickel, a vice admiral who wore the same uniform James was wearing but It was in navy blue instead of white and his promotions and rank were replaced with insignia of bullheads and cruisers. He was a tanned man with a crop fringed hairstyle for his black hair. He was one hell of a friend and was damn good in his job, he mostly had the same characteristics of Ironwood.

The second one was none other than the head the Special Activities Division of the Atlas Secret Service, Bradford Silver. He had a hair style of long messy hair styled upwards with a low fade. A slim body with a vertical scar running across his chin and his clothing was that of a black suit with a white shirt and red tie, normally mirrored by the security council employees. He had a tendency of being very up to date, precautious of nearly everything and would normal treat everyone he encounters with skepticism.

The both of them were close friends of Ozpin as well. As all three were recruited by him during their trainee days and mostly shared the same age as well, 34. As James and John were already showing early stages of aging with stubs of gray hair growing on their sides and stress lines on their faces while Bradford had neither and looked young.

Aside from those two, the rest were simple soldiers and intelligence officers the Lt. General had yet to familiarize with making It so that high ranking officials were already in the council chamber. He approached the duo with a small smile on his face.

"Hello John, Bradford. I hope the two of you got some sleep after working for Oz?". He said while extending his hand.

The look of their wary faces and heavy eyes already told him the answer. "Nah we are just fine and dandy after setting up that backdoor in the CCTS tower for Oz! It isn't like _some_ of us had to constantly forge paper work to fool the idiots guarding the damn thing with an emergency software update. You know how nerve racking would It be If we got caught right?!" Bradford replied with a snort.

"I see you are as pessimistic as usual. Besides It will be worth It in the end If we zero in on the maiden's location." James replied after making sure there were no eavesdropper.

The reply had caused Bradford to sour his mood and point a crooked finger at James. "Don't talk about shit like that over here James, last time I checked the security council couldn't give two shits about the privacy life of Its citizens and normally has the rooms of people like us bugged to the brim."

"Calm down Brad, the amount times we have talked about things like that in public would had gotten us caught a long time ago. Besides the places we normally talk about things like that are mostly bugged or security checked by us." The Lt. General tried to appease the man.

"Aside from that matter, does anyone know what the hell is going on with the weather? The brass had to order all civilian ships and any military ships lower than a corvette or carrier class to land immediately as they say _"They would immediately spiral out of control If they got anywhere near the North-Eastern sector of Atlas."_ Basically, the industrial and mining areas of the SDC.

"Last time I heard from a fellow agent that a brother's damn tornado was spotted near fort Maxim, ya know the area some good kilometers away from the Capital, where the SDC has been finding new dust mines to over work the poor Faunus bastards inside It." Bradford replied with clear distaste for the SDC but continued on.

"It's a minor one but the damn thing is causing blizzards and snow storms all over Atlas in random directions practically causing a state of emergency. Do you know what the weird part is? The closer you get to It the calmer It gets however there is a circular wall of snow practically stopping anyone or anything from going in or out that surrounds fort Maxim as a whole. Making It so they are dead in the water and without communication until the blizzards pass."

"Well that is definitely a problem, I hope the security council has more information on this." James stated while furrowing his brows.

The trio left and entered the council chamber which was a large circular chamber with 4 circular metallic desks on each quarter of the circular room arranged in 8 columns and 4 rows. Each quarter represented the ASS, Navy, Infantry corps and a newly announced paramilitary division that was greenlit by the security council 2 months ago with their representatives I.e. fleet admiral, general, etc. In front of the desks with a large wooden desk and the flags of their factions on their sides. The respected high-ranking officials of their faction right behind them.

The chamber was dimly lit due to a vertical rectangular pillar in the center with 4 flat screen TVs on each side casting blue light into the room. After taking a seat on his desk, James took a glance on the TV and saw a map of Atlas's borders which covered the continent of Solitas. It was a 5,400,000 square miles contorted continent with 2 minor sea masses near the Western sector. There were 4 military bases on each direction and were normally found near the shore lines as they had navy ports and air bases attached to them along with high ways connecting them, to the industrial sectors as they shipped cargo from governmental or civilian ships landing there.

3 air fleets and a 4000-man regiment were attached to the bases. Each fleet consisted of 4 corvettes with 60-70 men inside one, 2 destroyers which had 200-300 men in each and one fleet carrier with over 500 men inside It. There are 30 bullheads inside It, with each bullhead carrying 5-man specialist or soldier teams inside It and 20 fighters were present. The fleet carrier served as a command center as well.

One fleet from each base would patrol the borders to control air traffic, one fleet would patrol inland, act as escorts for industrial, civilian, VIP or governmental ships and one fleet would defend the base Itself while responding to nearby heavy Grimm incursions. The capital of Atlas was guarded and monitored by at least 6 air fleets due to high amounts of ships going in and out.

Below the map of Atlas. The live faces of Jacques Schnee, the head of the SDC with his pale skin color, white hair and a golden and white suit with epaulettes on display. The current lead council man of the administrative council, Percy Persimmon. A middle-aged lightly tanned man with classic long hair, a well-trimmed beard and sharp features on his face. He wore a fancy blue buttoned jacket with golden trimmings on his neck, joints and buttons and a brown pant and black shirt to go with It. The rest of the 7 administrative council men were present as well, who were evenly gendered and hailed from noble families like Percy with their golden trimmed and diamond trimmed suits, while following a general grey color scheme.

Glancing down to the representative of the Atlassian infantry corps and Specialists. He found General Maze Bronze. A grizzly old man with a diagonal scar going across his left blue eye and rumored to have some on his torso regions as well. He wears white pants with a white over coat that has a black sweater and red tie inside. His hair was white and had tall thick spiky hair coming out of top which curled around his head. He was considered a ruthless man by many due to him never losing a settlement or city from Grimm incursions but he was infamous for having the most casualties and was known to show little to no leniency to incompetence and cowardice but was rumored to indulge in political warfare as well If someone threatened his political and societal positions. He mostly acted on his own whim and sometimes in the interest of the kingdom as well.

" _Thankfully he will retire in 6 years, just have to make sure I survive by then."_ The Lt. General reassured himself.

Looking at the current admiral of the Atlassian navy and 2nd notable yet 43-year-old heir of the Persimmon family who was awarded the position of admiral due to his younger but more successful brother taking pity on him, was Burgundy Persimmon. He was a chubby man with brown hair rounding around his head with a bald center, had bushy eyebrows and mustaches as well. He wears a blue overcoat with a white shirt inside; custom made for him due to his size, a golden belt on a navy-blue pant and 3 golden rings with the symbol of Atlas on each hand. If anything, what John told James about the man was true than James disdain for the man rivaled Jacques due to the simple fact that the man was known to secretively remove anyone who threatened his position, hogged all the glory to himself and was known for showing public support to anti-Faunus movement and sometimes even outright humiliated the Faunus working under him while supporting the racists with financial and political support.

" _Hope the fat bastard chokes on a cake or something like that as soon as possible, the amount of jobs he has taken up, had many hard-working men and women living in the streets."_ James thought a bitter remark of the man.

The current director of the ASS was a woman in her 30s known as Azula Lapis Lazuli. She has black spectacles and had sharp features with keen blue eyes on her face, her blonde hair was a small twisted bun that was smoothly finished. She wears a black business jacket with white unbuttoned shirt to and a business skirt. She possessed well-toned muscles like most servicemen and was gifted with well-toned hips and breasts as well, to the ire of other women around her of course. She is normally known as a lapdog of the council who works in the shadows to make sure the positions of the administrative council and in turn hers, is secured no matter the cost. She is a shady woman by James standard, as both rumors both inside and outside the council have pointed to the woman not playing by the book, staging abductions of political rivals and Faunus sympathizers, running black sites to imprison or interrogate the aforementioned abductees and even be a cause in some disappearance of servicemen who spoke out of term or disobeyed orders be It abandoning a village to a Grimm attack or not forcibly removing Faunus protesters.

All in all, she was a bitch from James point of view and one that had tried seduce him for a quick promotion in the infantry corps but luckily her dubious nature had gotten her kicked out from It thanks to soldiers not liking her in general. Finishing the thought of with a glare to her back.

Turning his head to the newly added paramilitary division, which were theorized as an answer to more organized crime, corruption in the government and police department along with the detainment of powerful rouge huntsmen.

The Blue Gear was authorized with their lead commissioner, Gordan Copper. He was a pale brown and fair skinned 30-year-old man hailing from the famous Copper family, which was responsible in making renowned law enforcers from the days of Mantle, to dawn of Atlas Itself. Who true to their name exercised the law in a way as If It was their life force, lain down some of the foundations of legal guide lines for the police, Judiciary system and even some military policies related to civilian handling as well. As such Gordon was expected to be the next amazing thing, with his family's name allowing him to be the lead commissioner of Blue Gear.

Gordon himself appeared to be a man with pale skin and chocolate eyes. His body slim yet had light muscles on him and didn't appeared to follow the trend of normal high ranking Atlassian police officers, who take the easy life with their obese stomachs, lanky muscles and carefree nature. As Gordan's eyes alone told James that he was a hardworking man and aimed to be the best law enforcer his family demanded. Gordon's clothing consisted of black pants, a light blue overcoat with a black vest over It and a white sash around It. His head attire consisted of a blue peak cap with a black outline to make sure the white flower pattern embroidered on It stuck out along with a blue colored gear cap badge on the top of the hat as well.

James found that information related to the Blue Gears was scarce at best, as the organization was reported to be setting up shop within the capital and filling up Its rank. As such Gordon was theorized to be working around the clock and appearances of the man was noted to be job related only which was far and few between. James had yet to be acquainted with the man but he prayed to the brothers that he wasn't like the leading figures of the army right now.

As the rest of the high-ranking officials and representatives filed in with stoic yet somewhat weary expressions due to most of them not being night owls aside from the representatives themselves and hand full of few officials.

"Alright gentlemen, I hope you have seated down now, as the matter of what we are about to discuss is of extreme importance." Percy stated and after a few minutes after glancing down on some documents on his desk, continued on.

"As of right now. The minister of communication, Celia Blue has just reported that the CCT system is currently offline due to... technical difficulties. Leaving us in the dark for who knows how long before contact with the rest of the kingdoms is established and the go ahead is given for the Atlassian fleet to reestablish dominance over the south-eastern sectors, thankfully the continental transmit system with their nodes aside from the one in fort Maxim, are still up and running."

"Not only that, the Atlas Meteorological Organization has also reported a large tornado of some sorts, cutting out fort Maxim and the SDC mining base right near It from any form of logistical support from the Atlassian military while making sure the regions inside It are not affected by the tornado Itself, fortunately enough."

Propping his hands together on his elbows, Percy reported. "The blizzards all over Atlas are also reported to be caused by this tornado as they match the wind pattern of the tornado Itself. The tornado was reported to have _"popped out of nowhere"_ , as half of the fleet of fort Maxim which was tasked with guarding the base Itself had spiraled of control and crash-landed on the outskirts of the tornado while the rest of the fleets assigned to It were not present near It during that time."

That was some form of relief, from Ironwood's point of view but the news that followed immediately soured his mood with a grim expression on his face. "Unfortunately for the men inside the tornado, a region wide yellow alert was sounded, an hour before the tornado appeared."

Percy waited for the news to sink in, as a region wide yellow alert meant that a sizable Grimm force was being amassed that could potentially threaten to overcome the military forces inside It. A tense atmosphere was created in the room with some of the officials who were somewhat bored or weary, sweat dropping at the complications of the alert. Normally one or more than one of the fleets would have been rerouted to deal with the threat but with the tornado cutting off potential reinforcements and the already half-sized fleet overseeing It, meant that fort Maxim would potentially fall.

"What about rerouting the 21st mechanized infantry from the capital, to fort Maxim?" Maze spoke up.

"I am afraid transporting those men on land would prove to take 3-4 hours, provided of course the roads are free from snow or Grimm." Percy replied.

"Well It would be better in declaring a state of emergency and having the Atlas military mobilized, If that's the case. This way we can account for other unforeseen circumstances."

"Alright gentlemen, the loss of fort Maxim and the SDC mining base assigned to It, would be a major blow to the security council's and Atlas's as a whole, credibility to host the Vytal Festival in 2 years. Not only that It would also cause financial consequences to our ally I.E. the SDC. Damage to them, is damage to Alas remember that." Flickering his gaze to Maze, Percy continued. "Maze I propose in leaving you as in charge in making sure, Atlas remains safe and fort Maxim doesn't fall." Seeing no objections, the faces of nonmilitary officials flickered off the screens while leaving the security council to deal with the mess.

* * *

 **YEAR:** **UNKNOWN**

 **REGION:** **UNKNOWN**

 **LOCATION:** **UNKNOWN**

 **DAY:** **UNKNOWN**

 **TIME:** **23:30**

Markus found golden light coating his body and wind battering away at his ears as he dived across the sky to Remnant, with an eerie feeling of calmness on him.

The helmet thankfully allowed him to see through the snowy onslaught on his face. That he was able to make out a plain snowy plateau with alpine forests on the outskirts of It at the south and a bit of It on the west, there appeared to be a small hill with an open cave mouth facing the plateau on the North end of the plateau with blinking lights and structures just behind It but couldn't exactly make out what they were as his vison was somewhat hampered by all the snow that was being tossed around.

Oddly enough after jerking his head to the side, Markus found that he was in the middle of a tornado that stretched around the area he was in but instead of tossing things around inside It, it left the area in the center of It, alone except for the mild strong winds inside It.

Markus soon detected 2 duffle bags on his figure, as he descended down to the plateau. His arrival on the snowy earth caused a large shockwave that immediately tossed further snow into the air.

Momentarily blocking out any form of vision one would have, if they were to be in the area.

Rising slowly from the ground, Markus unhooked the 2 duffle bags on him and after taking a quick look around, immediately started rummaging through the bags,

The first one was black in color and had an emblem with small 2 Arabian swords in deadlock, on its center. Inside It Markus found a tablet with 6 non-blessed ammo clips and 6 blessed ammo clips for his M16 around It, along with 3 smoke grenades, 3 flash bangs and 2 High Explosive grenades. He found a small parchment inside It that presumably had the password for his tablet and also told him that the bag had enough space inside It to store his Al-Khalid armor.

The second one was simply white and filled with one set of non-military clothing that at first glance would fool anyone but in reality, there was some concealed armor on It. There were some blankets, men hygiene items, a prayer mat, a Quran and some rations along with a gem as well but the most eye-catching thing was the white colored Steyer Aug A3 CQC model prototype that had the same number and types of rounds that were found in the black duffle bag but the ammo clips were white instead of black, Markus immediately had fond memories of the men that the gun was normally associated with, which were the ex-commandos of Pakistan, now they served under him and still mostly used the same rifle. The second last notable item was his personal black smart phone which was used to catalogue the names of the men and civilians that died under his command or fought side by side with him, the reason they died and ways on how to prevent their deaths from occurring. All in all, the information was mostly stored away for commanders both new and old alike.

The final item was also a European long sword that had protection Duas on Its edge instead of It being on the fuller of the blade like the sword in the Al-Khalid's set. He found a parchment inside It that said "For your public persona". With that he immediately decided to reach Atlas as soon as possible and set off to the cave he saw to see what was going on there.

As he stalked along the snow while his cape flickered haphazardly, Markus allowed his thoughts to run wild. His mind wandered off to his conversation at the war room, he handled the situation like a teenage than an adult or a military general at that.

You see Markus had a tendency of forgetting things due to the simple fact on how busy he was, unlike normal generals or commanders who are found in the back lines. Markus was known for staying in the front lines and gong to battles after battles without a stop.

A day wouldn't pass where Markus didn't receive a new scar, dead bodies of his men or enemies and stuff that no man in his lifetime should endure nor see. As such Markus was normally a rare face to be seen in the briefing rooms as he would normally speed off to any new threat that popped up and dared attack his ummah(community).

Thanks to that, in the information department and information of enemies at that. Markus would draw blanks to the point that commanders and officers alike would drive their hands to their faces or shake their heads, as he would end up getting the most basic of things wrong but ended up surviving life-threatening situations due to him not having the necessary information was thanks to his ruthless nature and unfaltering resolve.

Markus knew that they were thinking that a moron will soon command them when he's older enough and prayed to Allah that he would sort out his problems by then.

Sometimes when the situation would get so bad that his side was left outgunned and outnumbered while Markus himself was in a wounded state and to make sure Markus was able to operate properly with a heavily wounded body.

He had to resort to a cave man style mindset as a coping mechanism, where the only things he would do is think, pray, kill, eat, sleep and talk in either grunts or small words. Anything other than that and he was more likely to pass out or spew words out filled to the brim with stutters that a toddler would have a better time communicating.

This way his reputation with the military would normally lead to him being the most brave and ferocious warrior to ever live one day and the next a bumbling idiot.

That really didn't deterred Markus from developing a sense of brotherhood and deep bond between his people and treating them like family but a sense of disappointment was to be detected oozing from them which ached away at Markus's heart. As he knew they deserved better due to the trials all of them had to endure after the cataclysm.

" _You have to focus on the task at hand Markus or else you ain't getting through this alive."_ Markus thought.

Markus let out a growl of frustration before deciding to focus on his surroundings, which consisted of snow covered trees and bushes that were far and few between along with some rock formations that were poking out of the ground.

The snow was familiar to Markus yet lacked the sinister sensation he felt back at earth, however the mark on his chest was starting to glow faintly which was odd for Markus.

The dry trees he encountered didn't seem lifeless or besieged by dark magic at all as they seemed more natural and alive to him, like the ones in Mecca which were a rare sight for a busy man like Markus.

Caressing the bark of the tree with an ungloved hand, gave off a pleasing sensation to Markus as he longed for the touch. Moving his hand to the leaves, he felt the smooth texture of the alpine leaf after genteelly removing the snow that covered the layer against his scarred hand.

" _Finally, trees that aren't dead. Hope this world is filled with more beauty than the bland and bleak world back home or at least the formally beautiful world that is."_ Markus thought.

Markus let out a heartfelt chuckle before returning to the task at hand and saying a quick praise to his lord.

Markus resumed his pace along the tundra while keeping an eye out for anything resembling the black hand. His footsteps were muffled thanks to the roaring winds and were quickly covered by the snow, giving potential enemies a run for their money in tracking him while his honed senses scanned the area.

His E.V helmet was constantly operational and picked something up after 5 minutes of walking. His helmet was on magic detection mode and picked up a small pile of orange magic residue just up ahead.

Markus whipped out his M16 and scanned the surroundings again. After finding no one, he wearily approached the residue to see what It was.

He saw what appeared to be 5 shell casings spread inches away from one another with 2 of them being yellow and 3 of them being red. Picking a red one up, Markus saw that the shell casing resembled his own NATO ammo used for his main rifle and appeared to give off impossible heat which should had stop doing so due to the cold temperature but against all odd was able to do so, as If It was fired just recently.

Markus saw that the heat was concentrated on the back of the shell where the red magical residue was concentrated as well.

Markus effectively summarized that this was Dust and the flame elemental kind at that. Glancing down to the yellow ones he saw small twitches of electricity that further backed his summary.

Now the question was what was It used on? As Markus advanced forward and started going to direction of the cave, after pocketing the casings. He saw a man-made asphalt road which had one end going to the cave and the other curving into the forest at the west end, with snow piling up on most of the road.

He felt a more refined sinister sensation which was unique to the possessor while going to the cave, past experiences with that damn enemy was mostly hateful and frustrating as Markus was competent enough to remember that It always zeroed on people who showed even an ounce of fear thus gaining a notoriety for being a high threat to civilians and the hopeless. Markus fortunately got more effective in dealing with that type of enemy over the years but personally he hated It the most.

The cave would be a mile or 2 away from him so It may take him half an hour to reach It If he went in this cautious pace.

Further up ahead along the road, Markus saw street lamps toppled down on their sides with various fading pawprints of various shapes and sizes, which resembled ones of bears and wolves.

The weather around him was starting to calm down, to the point that he was able to somewhat make out a destroyed perimeter fence with a roadblock and toppled over guard tower with the support structures caved in, 40 meters away from him.

Markus practically broke into a sprint as he saw 8 metallic armored bodies strewn about on 2 sandbags, on the side of the road. Worry was racing in his heart but in the back of his head Markus knew that these men were already dead.

As he closed in he saw a corpse of a soldier lying hunched over on the sand bags with his arm dangling over the edge of the sandbag, while his blood caked the sandbag. A white symbol which may have been representing Atlas, was on the flag pole toppled downwards near him.

A metallic suit was donned on him with the helmet's design revealing a slacked jaw, which had Its main chest piece destroyed by a huge claw mark as he saw the fragments of It nearby, another claw mark was found on his exposed torso which was deep enough to cause harm and pin him but not outright kill him. The killing blow on the other hand was a bite on his throat which was ripped out.

Glancing around he saw the wounds and dry blood on the similar bodies, which were animalistic and brutal in nature as one had his arms ripped out with his mouth agape which meant that he died screaming.

Another, a woman had her entire lower section ripped out while leaving a pile of entrails and gore. She clutched a rifle which had Its ammo all used up, the stock of the rifle being reduced to this mangled and broken mess as she presumably attempted to fight of the rage induced beast ripping her apart.

Most of the bodies were in similar states of mutilation spread around the sand bags while nearly all their gear was destroyed in a stampede of the horde of enemies that rampaged through them aside from a futuristic gun which reminded Markus of a FN P90 but with no scope, in a white and black color palette and had a clip inside It with 30 rounds.

The state of the bodies had Markus's heart pounding continuously as vows of vengeances coursed through his body, the helmeted eyes of the soldiers did little in stopping the accusatory feeling the dead would give off to Markus one way or another for allowing this to happen. An untapped rage was slowly becoming unearthed from the confines of his heart, he needed to locate the ones responsible and immediately administer justice.

The bodies were mostly left alone by Markus as he spoke a quick prayer for their souls with the words. "Inna Lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un". Which meant that all men came from Allah and is to him we will return. Right before he left, he noted down the names of the men and women slain to be archived and mourn for another time, by genteelly surveying their body tags.

Markus was surprised to see the names being mix and match of color names. " _Must be a cultural thing by the locals."_ Markus thought briefly before glancing around.

A pair of footprints with the sole pattern matching of that of the soldiers, was moving away from the checkpoint and towards the cave.

" _Hmm, a runner must have been sent to alert their superiors while the rest of the soldiers stayed behind to hold them off."_ Markus analyzed internally.

The footprints were starting to become clearer and deeper as he further ventured on, after 10 minutes he saw the unfortunate fate of the runner with his vision of the E.V helmet on normal mode.

A woman with black stacked and inverted smart bob hair, in her mid-twenties and a uniform of a grey blazer jacket with white pants was lying face first on the ground in a puddle of her own blood and seemed to be hunched over in a protective manner over something with her arms bent inwards.

Her entire back section was shredded with her skin torn to shreds, the cloth barely clinging on to her bare back and blood oozing out of there with various wounds on her arms and legs, on closer inspection a bite wound was found on the back of her neck.

" _Judging by how precise and similar in size the slash marks are, the creature of Grimm responsible for this must have lived long enough to understand how to track, immobilize and kill a human efficiently."_ Glancing down on her bare back, " _efficiently It's animalistic nature allowed It to be."_

The signs of intelligence the creature was showing and safe to say the Grimm meant that they were very similar to nearly all his enemies, which meant that If they get to live long enough than their intelligence and power would increase as well. Making It so that Markus would have to deal with them in a moment's notice or else the survivors would pass their teachings on to their superiors and learn, effectively making their off springs or replacements stronger.

Glancing around Markus saw the hilt of a blade poking out of the snow, after taking it out he saw the woman's weapon of choice was a sword with the main components of a rifle attached to It after an inspection from a critical eye, the weapon was a mecha-shift weapon which was weird at best due to the amount of time It would take in maintaining a weapon like that, but perhaps these Remners may have found other means to negate the problem?

After crouching down and gently moving the woman on her back, Markus came face to face with a young and beautiful but tear covered face, her dilated hazel eyes told Markus everything on how the poor woman died a long and painful death with regret overflowing her heart with each drop of blood.

A gauntleted hand was about to close her eyes before Markus remembered that he had to know the person's name in order to do a dua for closing the eyes of the deceased.

Looking down on her chest he saw a blue I.D card with the symbols and letters in white on her left breast.

The top left of the card had a picture of the same woman smiling right in front of him, with the left side giving him the information he needed which was that her name was Olivia Rainart, her rank was classified as a "Specialist" and her deployment area was called Fort Maxim.

With that Markus closed her eyes while saying "O Lord, forgive Olivia Rainart and raise her ranks amongst the rightly guided, be a successor to whom she has left behind and forgive us and her O lord of the worlds. Make her grave spacious and illuminate It for her."

With that he was about to leave before he was an object in her arms.

Markus found a blue rectangular tablet or at least the back-leather skin of Its back, with the same symbol on It.

Turning It over he saw that the display screen was open and oddly enough was in this holographic form. Markus saw that the battery level was about to run out in 10 minutes due to the awkward way the woman was holding may had left the tablet going for an hour or so without the auto lock kicking in and conserving energy.

On the screen, he saw a map on the region he was in with a 4 km wide base just right in front of him and just behind the hill, while the hill Itself being called "SDC mining operation site". The map also had marked the capital of the kingdom which was to the west of him while also marking the crash sites of unfortunate aircrafts that were foreign to Markus dotted at the south or more specifically the forest while a handful had crashed around the base.

On the top left Markus saw white text which said.

 **Cross. Continental. Transmit. System**

 **STATUS:** **UNAVALIBLE**

 **Continental. Transmit.** **System**

 **STATUS: UNAVALIBLE**

 **Continental. Transmit.** **System** **(FORT Maxim)**

 **STATUS:** **ONLINE**

 **REGION STATUS:** **YELLOW ALERT**

 **THREAT REQUIREMENTS REPORTED BY:** **OLIVIA RAINART**

 **AUTHORISED BY BASE COMMANDER:** **DANIAL BRONZE**

 **MAIN OBJECTIVES UPDATED:** **ALL PERSONAL ARE TO HERE BY REPORT BACK TO FORT MAXIM IMMEDIATELY WHILE HALTING ALL SEARCH AND RESCUE OPERATIONS FOR DOWNED ATLASSIAN AIRCRAFTS NEAR FORT MAXIM. A LARGE GRIMM FORCE HAS BEEN DETECTED TO COnVERGE ON FORT MAXIM FROM ALL SIDES.**

 **EXPECT LITTLE SUPPORT FROM THE SURIVING AIRFLEET AS THE WEATHER IS STILL UNFITT FOR THEM. HAIL FOR REINFORCEMENTS HAS YET TO BE ANSWERED SO NO REINFORCEMENTS ARE SET TO ARRIVE IN THE NEXT FEW HOURS.**

 **ALERT SOUNDED:** **1 HOUR AND 17 MINUTES AGO.**

" _Got to hurry and make sure those boys survive the onslaught or else the same fate I saw will be repeated ten times over."_ Markus thought grimly.

Before even a second had passed Markus's title started to glow in a hazel color, the same color the woman's eyes were as such this unprecedented anomaly caused Markus to make his E.V helmet go into magic detection mode, the sight caused Markus's world to slow down as his brain attempted to process what was happening.

Right in front of him was a near identical ghostly replica of the same woman except had a hazel colored glow to her, was standing perfectly still with a grin on her face and her arms behind her back.

Markus encounters with spirits were brief yet frightening as they would keep on yelling and begging to give them control of his body, while sometimes even recounting the tales of their punishments being served to them in the grave. One glance at them alone would give off a feeling to any human that they were people who deserved It, as such when that feeling was not present Markus was profoundly confused yet severely scared at that same time on how to deal with the situation.

" _Hiya stranger, you don't look like from these parts, are you lost?"_ The ghostly woman or Olivia inquired in an accent that was similar to the same one found in an American countryside.

* * *

 **Update: Just correcting some grammar, nothing more. Also more reviews would be welcomed and a follow as well, If you are satisfied by the story that is.**


	4. Chapter 3

**AN: Hello guys Its Mustafa and I would like to thank you all in reading my story, please leave a review as those are very welcomed and considered helpful by me, I will try to show the answers of all the reviews posted in chapter 5. Now without a further a due, let's start this story in the name of god and bismillah.**

The ghostly woman or Olivia levitating right in front of him was rubbing Markus the wrong way, as something felt off yet natural about her. " _Is this the fear of the unknown?"_ Markus thought quickly before his brain registered the woman about to move her hand.

Markus's brain had gone into full blown combat mode in which, the more rational part of his brain was separated and chucked out of the proverbial window, as years of training and combat experience had Markus dropping the duffle bags on him along with the assault rifle he was wielding to the ground.

Go into a combat role with a sizable amount of snow being kicked up due to his larger body mass and cape, concealed his figure. By the time he got up and the snow had settled.

He had a Desert Eagle drawn on his left hand aimed at her head while his right-handed sword was practically inches away from cutting into her neck when It was removed from the scabbard with a ***SHIINNNG*** , Olivia's brain was too late to register that he had gotten near her and had caused her to gape in shock as her eyes widened in fear with the audible ***CLICK*** of a blessed Deagle round about to go into her head, if she dared to even move an inch.

His ruby red eyes bored into her skull with his height and gear giving off an intimidating image, with the both of them in a standstill. Markus sub consciously recited surah al-Fatiah and Ayat ul-Kursi which were duas that warded off lesser evil spirits while weakening major demons or jinns to a blessed round or 2 by causing them to deteriorate slowly through burning up.

Detecting no form of deterioration or pain by the ghostly woman right in front of him aside from the rising fear she was expressing through her shuddering body, mortified expression and her arms back behind her back in a rigid fashion.

Markus was a better safe than sorry type of man as he would rather exercise caution that his masters and religion drilled into him than allow a potential threat any form of freedom to do anything.

 **"I am giving you 10 seconds to explain what you are before I decide that you aren't worth my time."** His voice was distorted yet deep at the same time thanks to his helmet, masking his true voice while giving off the demonic and threatening edge that unnerved many people.

The effect was almost instantaneous as she attempted to raise her shaky hands slowly after unclasping them, the right hand held a brown parchment with golden letters inscribed on It.

 _"Lo-Look stranger, I know that you aren't the most... patient type but I had a real bad day. I also know that you are awfully untrusting of me but maybe this paper with glowing gibberish can help with that?"_ She ended the sentence with a nervous smile which was followed by nervous laughter for good measure.

Markus immediately recognised them as Arabic letters and had the parchment snatched off her hands after holstering his Deagle. The action got an _eep!_ from the woman as she stood there with her hands raised on her sides in front of Markus, as an act of surrender while shooting a nervous smile to him.

He read the letter aloud as to make sure the both of them could get their curiosity of the parchment sated. **"Dear Markus, as the current holder of the title of the soldier of god. You are allowed to see and communicate to deceased aura users but only after the sun has set, be warned that there are certain rules that both parties should abide by. The first rule is that the dead aren't allowed to speak of the angels of punishments or rewards and are exempted from talking about the secrets of the dead. The second rule states that they must remain in a close proximity of Markus and are only allowed to relay information that they knew in their past lives and are only allowed to discuss information that Markus is aware of but can be used to watch over Markus's property and alert him If someone comes from them at the cost of giving his enemies a rough estimate of his location. The third rule is that while communicating with Markus, the deceased soul of the aura users can and will draw attention of the black hand so only necessary interactions are advised. The fourth and final rule is that Markus can heal the image of the body of the deceased aura users by simply touching them as to make sure they are not an evil spirit in disguise, signed by Malak-ul Maut. The angel of death."** The parchment lit Itself on fire and was gone before they knew It.

Markus's brain had gone from gunning the woman down for even moving an inch, to a calmer state where he simply bopped her on her head with a vertical fist after holstering his weapons.

Hazel light immediately covered her and after a few seconds a perfectly fine Olivia was standing right next to her maimed corpse on the ground with a pale yet happy face.

 _"Well would you look at that, ya fixed me up!"_ She said while jumping enthusiastically off the ground before suddenly her eyes narrowed and she poked her index finger on Markus's chest while leaning in.

 _"I don't what you have been smoking stranger but It's rude to hold a fine lady on gun point"_ She accused in a comical manner.

Markus held up his right index finger before speaking. **"No, it would be rude to hold a living and breathing innocent woman at gunpoint so excuse me If you don't fit that criteria as your undead brethren have a thing for staging a hostile takeover on my body. Speaking of being dead, you are taking this thing very easily. Your corpse is a crying and maimed mess while you are sporting a happy go lucky attitude, shouldn't you be more depressed or something like that? Even If you are, keep the crying to a minimum and make sure incoherent crap doesn't comes out of that mouth. The both of us need to get a move on or else the living will pay the price for us mucking about."** Markus stated in a hostile and final tone as he wanted to assist those men immediately, consoling a dead person would not help so pulling a more authoritative and hard-ass tone should kick in the disciplinary training the ghostly woman had.

Especially If said person intended on "brightening up the mood" in an otherwise serious and grim situation and couldn't shut their traps when needed to while ignoring the situation around them.

He didn't bother looking at the ghostly woman as he picked up his duffle bags and assault rifle before breaking into a jog towards the cave.

Said jog was promptly interrupted when he saw Olivia standing right in front of him with a serious expression yet with subtle hints of anger. _"Look mister, I know that you aren't fun in parties but there is no need to be an ass about everything. As you can see I ain't exactly having the best of days so me having this "happy go lucky attitude""._ She said in an imitation of Markus's voice before continuing on.

 _"Was a sort of coping mechanism to me being dead ya know, do you even know how hard It is when an hour ago I was guarding the check point with my men. Talking about our families and how we are going to talk to them as soon as the damn weather clears up but nooooo a Grimm invasion literally came out of nowhere with a golden object falling out of the sky and I have to deal with a 10-foot-tall demon sent by the brothers who maybe knows what the hell in the brothers name is going on around here or what is happening to me for that matter!"_ She ended her rant by throwing her hands up in the air in exasperation.

 **"With all due respect misses Olivia but you sounded an alert to deal with an invasion that was heading towards your base, which we need to get to as soon as possible. Fact of the matter is you are dead and are taking up valuable time that could be used in saving the living, I know I am acting like an apathetic robot but that's a necessity right now in getting things done, how about this. If you just tell me the necessary information of what I am dealing with and the amount of people I have to help than I promise to explain everything at a later time."** Markus explained while adopting a gentler and diplomatic tone.

Her face had calmed down a bit but her eyes had lost the earlier enthusiasm she displayed and were looking down to the ground, with a huff she said. " _Fine stranger but I would prefer If I knew your name and face at that, the name is Gretchan Rainhart by the way. Not Olivia, that name was made up to get away from my family and start a new life here in Atlas."_

With a sigh Markus replied. **"My name is Markus Obsidian, I will show my face when we are not in the wilderness and in a more isolated location but for the record that golden object was me falling out of the sky."** As he begins to jog towards the cave at a cautious pace.

Gretchen's brows furrowed in confusion as she floated by his side. _"That was you who fell out of the sky? I have seen people done some crazier things than that but still at the rate and height you fell out off. No aircraft exists that could breach the stratosphere, let alone drop someone off from that height. How did you manage to pull something like that off?"_

 **"For your information I am not exactly from your world so I was dropped off here by god to protect the inhabitants of the world"**

The response caused Gretchen to blink owlishly for a few minutes as the thumping sound of Markus's jog and the howling winds was the only thing her brain registered before she replied. _"Okayyyy, that's absolutely crazy but can you show me some real proof ta calm my nerves?"_

The response led to Markus screech to a halt, heavily inhale and exhale before shoving a hand in his white duffle bag and procuring the Quran and his personal smart phone.

Flipped the Quran open with great care and respect, then showed the contents of It to Gretchen. **"These letters are from the same language, you labelled as gibberish while you held that parchment in your hand. Is the language used by God to convey his message to us humans back in my world and I can assure you can't find anything like this, there is more to the book but I promise you that I will offer more explanation later. For further proof that I am not a madman, bring your attention to this phone."**

He powered the switch on by pressing the power button and immediately showed her the photos he taken during the first time he was about to go in the first battle of his carrier as this phone was his personal one and as such was also used to store memories.

The photo Itself showed Markus in the standard armour he used back when he trained under heller while side by side with James himself on his left, the rest of Markus's squad were crouched on the dry shrubland with their middle eastern faces, while their helmets were on their sides.

Behind them was a UH-60 black hawk with a M1 Abraham tank and a convoy of 5 machine gun mounted Humvees and troop truck just behind It, while a Mil-Mi 17 transport helicopter was flying in the back ground with the black sky just behind It.

 **"This photo was taken of a team of service men back when I was about to send them into battle, as you can see the armour, weaponry and vehicle use technology not found in remnant or at least yet to be found or made in remnant."** He made sure to deliberately keep his identity hidden as he had no intention of talking about a ruined face that had changed over many years.

Gretchan stood there while analysing the image over and over again with narrowed eyes, trying to compare them with every type of Atlassian armaments and machinery she encountered while drawing out blanks as soon as she did.

 _"Alright Markus, even though all of this seems pretty crazy. I guess I can believe ya but can you answer me 2 questions?"_

With a sigh Markus responded while resuming his pace with the cave becoming clearer and clearer. **"Fine you can but hurry up, we will reach the cave in 10 to 15 minutes."**

 _"How is your world Markus, is It infested by the Grimm like ours or is It free from all that and you get live in peace?"_

 **"The world I came from was starting to become a degrading mess. The message of Allah and the spirit of my religion was abandoned in the name of worldly pleasures, a day wouldn't pass where a person wouldn't lie, cheat, abandon their responsibilities while acting as a hypocrite at the same time. Wars, corruption and murders were a common occurrence for centuries and were done in the name of stupidity, ignorance and evil while leaving the good and innocent powerless and confused. No one bothered on stopping the agents of the devil while the handful of those who did, either took the pacifist route and were promptly stomped by an iron fist or were betrayed and assassinated by their own people through conspiracies and psychological manipulation."** His eyes never leaving the cave as he said that.

 **"Walls were formed between people with nations, ideology, culture and religion, dividing them as the world descended into this cesspool of betrayal thus causing people to break away from people they called "families" instead of enduring the storm together and opting solidarity instead of unity."** Markus's knuckles begun to whiten as the grip on his weapon became harder.

 **"As you can see the world had become a bleak mess as such things like mobile and physical entertainment, drugs, sex, intoxicants and other sources of pleasure allowed the masses to escape reality and adopt a more peaceful and lazy approach to their lives while leaving the problems of the world to be handled by a hand few of powerful people that may or may not be corrupt. Accountability and justice only existed to those who were influential, popular and powerful enough to affect the lives of many people at once while the weak, poor and powerless were forgotten even though responsibilities said otherwise. I swear one may never even look family in the eyes unless they wanted something from them. "**

A mirthless chuckle escaped Markus's lips as Gretchen started feeling a sense of dread and fear thinking about the world Markus described, emotions she thought she would never have to feel again.

 **"All that changed 3 years ago when the cataclysm arrived. The gates of hell were opened with demons coming out with the undead in tow. The agents of evil or the Black Hand as they formally introduced themselves to the public started their reign of terror with their leaders the Witches, pulling the strings. Suffice to say a wave of pain was passed around throughout the world that their worldly pleasures couldn't numb, breaking many out of their daze and pulling them back to the religion of Allah to combat the new evil."** He finished by sending a glance towards her.

 **"Tell me my dear sister, is the state of the world I described similar to yours or is It going in the same direction before the cataclysm."**

 _"Well, I-I guess It is. Come to think of It some of the rich folks and in some places, folks in general are eerily similar to the bad people in your world. Well I think It is safe to say, yes. Even though my optimistic side is saying yes but for you It should have been easy with aura, right?"_ Her shoulders had sagged yet she her voice sounded hopeful for a simple yes.

Another chuckle from Markus surprised her before he replied. **"I am afraid not sister, aura doesn't exist from where I come from. It's a world where Allah has promised that those who fight in his name will kill and will be killed with the only thing separating us from death, is his support."**

The response had momentarily caused her to be stunned before she rushed Markus's face to his annoyance but he saw something he didn't expect from someone aside from his own people, worry.

 _"Now I know that just by looking at you, you are one of those warrior type people who go in battles first and crawl out on their hands and knees later but that is something warriors with aura are only capable of doing, hell a movement has been started to make sure non-aura users see less and less combat as to make sure they get live healthy lives so please tell me that you at least have a substitute of aura?"_ Her eyes taking a more caring and hopeful tone.

Markus merely raised his right hand to her before removing the gauntlet. _"Holy shit" she said, a_ s she practically latched on to Markus's hand which startled Markus internally while externally his hand went rigid. The cold didn't bother him but the touch of another person and woman at that for religious reasons, unnerved him.

The hand itself was nothing less than a scarred tissue as multiple scars and burn marks of various sizes were spread all over his large hand. The scars were focused around the back of his hand with large ones going diagonally across his fingers while a mix and match of them were on the rest of the hand. These ones had faded away throughout the years while the recent yet smaller cuts and bruises having scab on them were present on the palm and finger tips.

 _"That's the same number of scars I would have on my body If my aura didn't heal those up in the first place! by the brothers how are you able to move the thing at all, some of these must have been like a year old and must have hurt like a bitch. How haven't you retired already 'cos I have seen some people take the Atlassian medical discharge right there and leave!"_ Her voice was filled to the brim with care that Markus only heard from his mother.

 **"Don't worry about me too much as battles have a tendency of being a brutal affair but enough about me and more about my enemies, how many of them were there and what do they look like?"** Markus questioned after withdrawing his hand and redoubling his footsteps. Gretchen had decided to put of the matter of worrying about Markus later and decided to focus at the task at hand.

 _"Well I sensed about like 4 to 5000 thousand of 'em with the most of them being mix and match of Ursas and Beowolves. A Beowolf is a creature that stands on Its hind legs with black fur and bone like spikes on Its spine, shoulders and joints aside from Its neck and belly. They have claws and a mean looking bone mask that glows red. A Ursa is like a bear version of a Beowolf but much bigger and stronger, at the cost of mobility that is."_ After trying to remember something she continued.

 _"Unfortunately for you Markus a new type of Grimm was spotted and unfortunately killed me. It was 15-foot-tall and mostly resembled a jacked-up Beowolf but with more armour on Its ribs, back, fore arms and fore legs. Honestly the armour felt like pads than something natural or spiky at that and It has horns coming out of Its head while there is a red glow on Its veins as well. It also has 7 alpha Beowolves in Its packs which are stronger and bigger versions of Beowolves."_

By the time the sentence finished, the cave had begun to make It's destroyed gates known to Markus as It was only 400 meters away from him. The weather felt as If someone had pulled the plug on It and with It the snow storm had stopped kicking up snow altogether with the tornado wall covering fort Maxim being dissipated as well.

 ***KARBOOM***

An ear-splitting explosion occurred on the cave, with the after effects of the shockwave knocking Markus of his feet. The mix and match colours of yellow, blue, red and black yet with small hints of purple had illuminated the skies with flying burning debris and destroyed chunks of dust crystal of various colours were tossed in the air. A rising cloud of these colours, marked the epicentre of the explosion with the aforementioned objects shooting out of It in various directions, providing more than enough illumination of the surrounding area.

Markus had saw many explosions in his life but this would mostly be classified as a lethal firework show than an actual explosion. The resulting shock wave carried dust, snow, rocks and fragments that caused Markus to simply crouch down and raise an arm covering his head, while the other one was slammed into the ground deep enough to anchor him and not fall down.

After he removed his arm he saw a blazing inferno right in front of with various pieces of metallic foundations sticking out of the caved in cave. A thick layer of black smoke was being formed around the explosion site that blocked the view of the base as the snow did everything in Its power to snuff out the flames that disturbed Its domain.

Markus broke into a run with Gretchen in tow as he sprinted towards the base just behind the hill, he made sure to avoid the burning debris while keeping an eye out of possible Grimm. After breaching through the inferno and smoky mess, his breath died in his throat as he attempted to process the image right in front of him the elevated position of the hill provided.

A 40 feet tall stone wall surrounded the base that was currently besieged by the Grimm on all sides, with the majority of them focusing on the gable roofed gatehouse on the wall in front of Markus. The battlements of the wall were manned by Atlassian soldiers and soldiers who looked more metallic and robotic in nature to be called humans, with at least a 1000 of them spread all over the walls while some of them were behind them acting as reserves.

The 2 conical towers at each end of the walls fired out blue flares that provided illumination to the entirety of the base which allowed Markus to see the rest of It which consisted of 90 military housing and logistic structures with their 4 storied gabled roofing, the 8 hangers and 20 launchpads for the aircrafts the Atlassians utilised on the far right of the base with their barrelled roofing and a communication tower of some sort with a half a kilometre wide mansard roofed military headquarters acting as Its base, being turned online with the blinking lights suggesting that Its transmitting due to no weather interference.

Markus saw honest to god space ship out of a sci-fi film, launching from the barrelled roof of the hanger. The aircraft was like the size of a naval corvette ship back at home and was designed like a detailed brick but a sleek one with Its layered hull and 3 decorative spikes that stuck out of Its engines with one set on each side along with 2 visible guns on the bottom and 3 vertically mounted double barrelled turrets on each side.

Another one mostly similar to It launched but this time carrying cargo of All things along with the SDC label on Its hull and cargo, sped out of the battlefield like a bat out of hell. The first one on the other hand positioned Itself over the battlefield as Its main batteries came online and with a salvo of Its weapons, cleared out the sky of airborne Grimm that resembled oversized birds with blue explosions and ***THUMPING*** of Its rhythmic volleys **,** the air borne Grimm Markus had failed to spot due to him being focused on the ship.

A glance just behind the ship made Markus's heart sank, as he saw a graveyard of the larger and compact versions of the ship right in front of him, they were in a burning and scrap metal mess with their structures slammed together and the various parts of them dislodged into the terrain.

As soon as the sky cleared were cleared from the Grimm and the rhythmic * **THUMPING*** of the batteries had ceased. The rest of the 5 hangers opened up with 15 VTOLs streaming out of them as an alarm was sounded for their take-off, 10 of them resembled like AW 139 but with no rotor blades and had long needle like thrusters on Its side with the side doors just below the cockpit which revealed a pair of soldiers on each side, streaming down bullets from the sides. The rest of the 5 of them were much sleeker and more similar to the aforementioned aircraft, had no notable room for passengers and had a large gun strapped on to Its nose and was acting like a fighter by providing protection to the transport VTOLs that were occasionally attacked by airborne Grimm that still remained.

All in all, Markus felt like that he wouldn't be needed as the Grimm were barely making any footholds or pokes on the defences of the Atlassians even If some did break through the wall of colourful led being poured on to them, they would be immediately be repelled by 30 noticeable soldiers in white uniforms and grey blazers, with their leader wearing a grey long coat and a peak cap. They brandished mecha-shift versions of swords, sabres and other classy weapons with ranged addons while their leader brandished a maul with a shot gun on Its top side.

The battle was intense as the Grimm were screaming, kicking and clawing over one another in order to breach the stone masked wall the Atlassians had become, the ***BARK*s** and ***CRACK*s** of their rifles drowned out any other noise the humans made or hear while the VTOL aircrafts circled around the Grimm by picking of both land and air-based Grimm that got too close to the defenders while making sure no Grimm snuck into the base. The warship was positioning Itself right above the Grimm horde to take them out with Its batteries.

 ***RRRRRAAAAWWWWWAAAAAARRRRRR***

A guttural yet throaty scream erupted from the mass of black fur, claws and bones the Grimm horde had become, which pierced through the sounds of battle both sides were making. Stopping and stunning many Atlassians from what they were doing and instead started focusing on the source of the sound, which was the centre of the Grimm horde.

The same 15-foot-tall Grimm Gretchen described, rose up on Its 2 hind legs after exiting from Its 4-legged prone position. Its body armour resembled that of a human knight but still fitted with Its animalistic body, in front of It was a stack of 20 red dust crystals which glowed brightly against the snow.

A greedy hand grabbed onto a crystal, before said crystal was slammed into Its own throat. Eliciting another roar which both unnerved and surprised the humans as they were not expecting a move like this at all while Markus merely analysed the creature with a critical eye, as fighting against the black hand had made It muscle memory; that his enemies would be versatile and adaptive no matter who they are.

Another hand brought out a crystal but this time It was a lit by a torrent of flame that erupted from the creature's throat. Said crystal was than chucked at the gatehouse, the defenders inside It could only watch in despair as the crystal ***WHISTLED*** towards them, the left tower of the gatehouse was destroyed with a combustive ***BOOM*,** most of the 20 soldiers and robots manning It being killed on the spot or slowly dying by the flames and rubble pilling up on them. Shouts of surprise and warning were called out from the humans as the beast prepared for Its next move.

The presumably leader of the Atlassian force with his peak cap attempted to spit out orders but a torrent of flame soon engulfed the battlements of the wall as the soldiers and robots manning It were quick enough to back away from the battlements while a few unfortunate ones were lightly burned.

After regaining his composure, the peak capped leader ordered his troops off the wall by signalling with his maul. Markus didn't agree with this at all as the walls are the only thing allowing the range-based portion of the force to do Its role properly and efficiently, abandon the walls and the only thing separating them and the Grimm are a handful of melee soldiers that can't keep every Grimm at bay no matter how proficient they are.

 ***CCCCCCAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWW***

Another ear-splitting roar occurred but this time It resembled that of a bird and was directly above him as well. Jerking his head up he saw the largest form of airborne Grimm he had ever saw in his life as the bird like Grimm could take on the warship hovering above the Atlassians on Its own.

The warship immediately welcomed the Grimm with Its batteries and main canons on Its bottom with blue flak erupting all over the Grimm while the rest of the air support the Atlassians had diverged on the Grimm by attacking It from all side in hopes of encircling It and killing It, the weaponry at best was mostly ineffective in outright piercing Its hide and killing It but progress was being made.

The 15-foot tall Grimm on the other hand had started chucking more flamed crystals at the wall, its first 3 crystals collided against the walls of the fort as a part of It that was just on the left of the destroyed tower, caved in without any warning while also creating a opening

 _"That walls and gates won't hold out for long, I will have to draw Its attention or else Its going to break through those gates and kill everyone in sight."_ Markus thought to himself.

Jerking his head to Gretchen, he yelled. **"Gretchen watch over my bags while I deal with the mess!"** A nod was given in response before Markus broke into a sprint again after tossing said bags to the ground.

The Grimm were 600 meters away from him with the majority of the already scaling the walls by piling on top of one another with even some of them being tossed by the larger Grimm over the walls.

Markus unholstered his M16 while he left the Atlassian rifle in one of the duffle bags. The scoped vision allowed him a clear line of sight to the 15-foot tall Grimm, as he crouched down and took aim. He breathed and as the Grimm was about to chuck a crystal, he pulled the trigger.

The ***CRACK*** of the rifle had many Grimm at the back regarded Markus, as the round punched through the opening of the armours on the spine and left shoulder blade. The round had punched through and allowed a small drizzle of blood to leave with while taking out a small insignificant, bony chunk of armour as well.

The Grimm's beady red eyes turned to regard Markus with a ferocious growl and proceeded to bark at Its fellows to chase after him.

Out of the horde, 30 Grimm answered the call to charge at Markus. 10 Beowolves spread side by side and 13 Ursas right behind them, with the 7 Alpha Beowolves just in front of them and were much faster than them as there was a good distance away from one another. Their jaws snapping, throats growling and movements at best erratic.

Markus regarded the leading Alpha with a 3-round burst. The rounds were mostly aim at Its torso so Markus didn't really like the odds of piercing through Its armour, but was relieved to see the rounds go through the armour like paper, as the Grimm fell into a heap of Its own blood due to Its momentum and made no signs of getting up.

Seeing their leaders fallen, the alphas immediately broke away from bun rushing Markus, to use their lesser brethren's as meat shields. Unfortunately for them 2 more precise burst fire shots, made sure 2 alphas never got to safety.

 _"20 rounds"_ Markus made a mental recount of his ammunition. Waiting for them to get into the 200 meters mark. Markus switched the fire mode from burst fire to fully automatic, allowed his enemies to close in and clump up together and squeezed the trigger.

The continuous ***CRACK*** of his rifle momentarily illuminated a small area around Markus while revealing the near demonic appearances of his enemies that had bullets slammed into them.

Out of the 10 Beowolves, 3 of them were tore into disintegrating shreds while the 2 Alpha Beowolves behind them met the same fate as their brethren due to the number of bullets and kinetic force that carried over from their cannon fodder brethren.

The remaining Grimm were undeterred by their losses as the 13 Ursas behind them were 300 meters away from Markus while the surviving Grimm were closing in fast. They weren't really intimidating as the Beowolves were barely 5 foot while the Alpha variants of them were 7 foot at best but he was still cautious of them.

Markus immediately holstered his M16 back his back after reloading It from 4 non-blesssed clips while leaving the 4 blessed one alone, tightening the rifle sling to make sure It stuck on his back and didn't interfere in combat. Deployed his sword with a nostalgic ***SHIINNGG*** and adopted a back-right sword stance.

The leading Beowolf pounced on Markus with Its claws wide and jaws outstretched, in a feeble attempt of ripping out his jaw, Markus merely intercepted It with an upward sweep that cleaved the Grimm into an arc that travelled from Its left paw and exited from Its right. Rending through bone, flesh and muscles with ease.

Markus paid no attention to the blood that splattered onto him and disintegration that was occurring from the corpse, as the Beowolf just behind It growled out in an attempt to tackle Markus with Its arms outstretched and claws wide.

Markus swiftly sidestepped It to the right while keeping his attention to the rest of the Grimm and allowed his longer arms with a sword just about Its length to expand outstretched from his left, cleaving the Grimm in half as It ran Itself through It. The sharp ***SHUNCK*** of metal going through flesh gave Markus all the conformation of the Grimm's demise he needed.

The rest of the Grimm approaching him were practically meters away from one another or at least the Beowolves that is while the 2 Alpha variants were keen on acting as the finishers and allowing their younger and rage driven brethren to take the brunt of Markus's assault, meaning that he would need to use the rest of his limbs as well to handle them at the same time.

3 of the Beowolves approached Markus from the centre while the 2 of them flanked from the sides. Markus darted out a kick to the middle Beowolf aimed at Its head, his boot connected with Its white bone mask with a sickening ***CRUNCH*** , sending It flying with a cracked mask to the Beowolves at the centre and leaving them in a mess of staggered bodies.

Markus's honed senses had already registered a claw approaching his right gut while at the corner of his eyes a Beowolf about to pounce on him, adrenaline coursed through Markus's veins as time appeared to slow down for him.

His right sword hand positioned the sword on his right leg for a slash while his left hand had already latched on to the incoming claw, he pulled the Grimm closer while his head turned to regard the Grimm on his left which was about to be airborne.

The sword had already cleaved the Grimm he was holding in two, as Markus used the upper-half of Its body like a projectile and tossed It at the Beowolf that was already mid-air on his left,

The collision for the Grimm was like being hit by a truck as the wind was knocked out of It mid-air when It was tossed back to the ground, snow piled up from Its impact while a sound reminiscent to whimpering erupted from Its throat to Its shame due to the fear and pain It was witnessing, somewhat mimicked by his brethren that was cleaved in half.

A thrust to the face by a black sword soon silenced It while a sickening stomp of a boot silenced his counterpart.

Markus whipped his head just in time to see all 3 of the Beowolves jumping at him at the same time, his sword proved to be much faster as he shoulder bashed the far left mid-air while his sword cleaved through the other two Grimm at the same time with a echoing *SHLLLCK*, the shoulder bashed Beowolf was sent flying after the report of bones snapping had reached Markus's ears and lopped Its head off after It attempted to get up.

The 2 Alphas were attempting to take down Markus in a coordinated attack by going for his lower and upper sections at once, Markus braced against the two attacks as he dug his heels to the ground and angling his sword near his body, to make sure their attacks slide off.

The force was barely felt by Markus as the Alpha tasked with attacking the lower half immediately retreated as It realised what was about to happen while the other Alpha attempted to bite of Markus's armoured face.

It was too late in realising Its folly, its right claw was too close to the human's left hand. As such It was immediately pinned in place by a spiked gauntlet. Before its brain could even register what was happening, the Grimm found itself pinned on the ground by the sword that had lopped of its right claw when it was being brought overhead and slammed down to the ground by the human.

Before a scream of sheer terror could even escape its throat, its head was reduced into a decaying gore of brain matter, bone fragments and blood by a spiked gauntlet with a loud ***CRACK***.

The final Alpha seeing his brethren annihilated by the human attempted to run before a swift lunge from the human led to a timely yet silent death.

Markus regarded the Ursas that were approaching him in a more cautious manner after seeing the death of their fellows, by raising his sword and making a 'Come over here' gesture with his sword while slowly regaining his stamina.

The Grimm didn't rise to the bait and with a strict schedule of saving people, Markus decided to aim his Desert Eagle at them that chambered .50 Action express blessed rounds.

Markus was very reluctant in using any form of blessed ammunition as a production of any form of blessed round was only done on Fridays and him only having 4 blessed clips of It while excluding the one in the gun, made It so he will have to use It wisely.

 _"There is always a first for everything so might as well see how this does against the Grimm"_ Markus reassured himself as he took aim one last time and squeezed the trigger of the 9-round gun, at the lead Ursa which was larger than the rest.

The bullet left with a mighty *THWACK*, leaving a trail of dissipating white light behind It while the bullet Itself gave off a faint white glow. The shot connected at the exposed underbelly of the Ursa and the results were to Markus's surprise, explosive or combustive would be the better word.

The Grimm had immediately exploded into a mess of gore in a flash of white light, Markus knew that they were effective against black magic and the undead at that but not making them explode into pieces effective, the next shot was aimed at another Ursa's shoulder armour to confirm a theory in Markus's mind about the effectiveness of said blessed shots on armour.

With a * **THWACK*** , the round immediately pierced through the armour due to its scientific factors while making the Grimm explode thanks to its religious factors thus confirming that against a heavily armoured Grimm, he would need to shoot at their exposed sections for deadly effect.

 ***THWACK* *THWACK* *THWACK* *THWACK* *THWACK* *THWACK* *THWACK***

Before the Grimm could even react, Markus's recoilless hands due to his strength and experience with the gun were a blur in firing of 7 more rounds in quick succession. Nearly all his targets were hit in the torso or the head and by the time the remaining Ursas had saw the fates of their brethren with guttural growls, whipped their heads towards Markus.

Who had reloaded and holstered his weapon while brandishing his sword in a right-shoulder guard stance, not even a sound was made but the Grimm knew he was taunting them but their animalistic natures had broken free as a larger Ursa howled in the air and rallied its comparatively smaller brethren that were at size of Beowolves while itself was 6 foot 5 inches at best.

Markus had smirked behind his helm as he deliberately let the second largest Grimm live as he knew that the larger one was too experienced and powerful to not be baited into charging at Markus and mostly influenced its pack, while the second largest one was mostly powerful but couldn't keep its bloodlust in check at all.

The Grimm stampeded towards him with the larger one taking lead with the 3 smaller ones just behind It side by side.

Markus darted back as the Grimm attempted a fruitless slash at him with its left claw, it over extended as it didn't expected Markus to dart back like a caped mannequin that it could barely track, exposing its entire left side to him.

The Mujahideen proceeded to quickly plant a boot on its left forearm armour, he grabbed onto the set of spikes growing on its back before he slashed his sword in an upward manner on its neck, decapitating the head within seconds with a visceral ***SHHTCK***.

He leapt of the back with the 3 Ursas stunned by the human, with his sword already swinging in a vertical motion on the Ursa in the middle.

With a *CLANG*, the sword pierced through its heavily armoured body while splitting its entire body in half with one swing.

Markus immediately let his sword go and darted to the Grimm on his right as he delivered a brutal right uppercut that sent it sprawling backwards with a broken jaw, he spun on his heel and delivered a left round house kick on the jaw of the surviving Grimm, the kick sent the lower portion of its jaw into the snow while the Grimm stumbled around due to the pain and shock of losing its jaw.

Markus went for his sword and silently executed them with no sounds behind made by thrusting at their hearts or at least the area where their hearts should be and turned his attention to the horde of Grimm that still remained while sheathing his sword.

The fires on the wall had somewhat died down leaving scorched remains while doors of the fort were shredded into peices by the horned Grimm with a loud ***BOOM*** , as after 7 consecutive misses of red crystals which resulted in 5 stacks of black smoke behind the walls while 2 marked pockets of fire on the wall itself. It finally found its mark and triumphantly roared at the air while spitting fire out to signal to his underlings to attack the fort.

The Grimm horde obeyed its command and charged through the gate that allowed 3 Grimm at a time meaning that Markus had to immediately draw their attention.

Markus was about to take aim and open fire with his M16, until the familiar screeching ***NEEEAAAWWW*** sound of a falling aircraft right above him caused him to look up.

The VTOL that had been designated as a troop transport by Markus was spiralling out of control due to its left turbine engine being pierced by a large feather quin of all things that was eerily similar to the airborne Grimm that was seen before.

The VTOL had lost control but its right engine was allowing it to have some form of stability as it spun in a clockwise fashion. The machine's mechanical failure outweighed the pilot's endurance in keeping the thing afloat as It started to crash while leaving a thin trail of smoke in front of Markus. The crash would potentially leave survivors so it wouldn't hurt to check it out.

Markus took a glance at the air battle where the rest of the Atlassian air force that was right above Markus's head, was having a ranged duel with the air borne Grimm that was at the dust quarry site Markus was previously as feather quills and dust rounds were being exchanged between the two.

Markus sprinted towards the crash site, the main body of the VTOL had thankfully crash-landed tail first as the design decision of the doors being directly below the cock pit would had made it so the crew would have a hard time getting out.

The tail had been broken on impact while piled up snow somewhat covered the body of the VTOL after the snow was forcibly moved due to the crash. The door refused to budge so Markus was forced to break it off with a heave and tossed the door to the ground with a thud after strapping his rifle.

He came face to face with 4 rifles being pointed at him by the same metallic soldiers he saw previously but with green outlines. The men in front of him were dazed by the landing but had recovered quickly thanks to it not being a harsh landing.

The one in the middle croaked out "Identify yourself immediately and please for the love of god not be a Grimm."

" **I assure you, I mean you all no harm. I came here to help as soon as possible and would like all of you to get out of this craft immediately, as Grimm will be converging on It."** Markus replied in a levelled tone while raising his hands up in surrender.

"Fine If you do intend to help us then grab the red flare on your left and fire It in the air." He said while still having his gun levelled at Markus.

Turning his head to his subordinates. "Jackson! Gregory! Get the pilots out of here, Mina make sure he does as we say while I help them out." A "yes boss" and "yes Michael" was heard before they went to work.

The smaller and nimbler one of them that Markus had written off as a small man which was in fact a girl, followed Markus out of the craft when he retrieved the red flare.

Markus aimed the flare at the air and twisted its handle which allowed the flare itself to shoot out of the sky.

Turning around to regard the soldier behind him, his chest had a gun levelled at by the woman who seemed to be nervous of Markus due to subtle shakes of her gun and slight twitches of her head.

"Alright no subtle movements and no one gets hurt." She attempted to intimidate Markus into not doing at all, Markus merely responded with a chuckle that brushed the soldier the wrong way as the voice didn't sound anything like human.

Markus turned on his heel and scouted the position for any incoming Grimm while the soldiers hauled the pilots out one by one and had them lain down on the edge of the ground.

"Look big guy, we have been hearing reports of a 10-foot-tall Grimm that has been tagging behind the horde of 'em and had single handily killed 30 of them at the same time. I am assuming it's you that's been doing that so I am going to ask you to remove your helmet and slowly at that to prove you are human." He ordered the man in front of him to comply as he raised his rifle at him.

Markus turned to him and crossed his arms as his red eyes bore into his skull. **"I am afraid that all of us have bigger problems to deal with than a man who is trying to help you."**

"It wouldn't have been a problem if it wasn't against Atlas law to begin with that huntsmen with hidden identities and vigilantism at that, is illegal. Don't make me say this again but remove your helmet." This time 3 more rifles were aimed at Markus with audible *CLICK*s.

Markus however ignored the soldiers as he focused around the area to see 50 Beowolves and 30 Ursas being sent to deal with him while the horde of Grimm attempted to file through the gates while being bombarded by strafing runs done by the fighters and occasional battery shots by the warship.

Markus craned his head to the direction which was caught on by the soldiers as they cursed under their breaths.

"Shit, a bull head will take 10 minutes to arrive here but overwatch fire from the fighters and other bullheads is available. Fine we can work together but don't try anything funny." The probable commanding officer of the squad of soldiers told him as Markus had already crouched down and aimed his rifle at the advancing Grimm that were spread out.

The soldiers had taken up position side by side with Markus as they aimed their guns as well.

"Focus on the faster ones as they are lightly armoured!" Michael yelled as he and his men opened fire with a flash of red dust rounds erupting from Michael's and Mina's rifles while Gregory and Jackson fire yellow dust rounds from their rifles.

The rounds were fired singular shots and depended on how fast the user can pull the trigger as they were released with *CRACK*s and ***BARK*s.** With each round fired from them 7 Beowolves were burnt to death while 5 of them were electrocuted as their thick hides and armour protected their nervous systems from frying up while doing minimal burn damage as well.

Markus on the other hand fired at the larger Beowolf's head, the results were expected by Markus as the Grimm's head exploded into pieces thanks to the 3 burst shots but was a total shock to the soldiers.

"You don't see that every day now do ya sarge?" One of them commented.

"The list of conundrums is piling up with this man with every second. Jackson focus on the fight and as for you, what type of dust are you using that pierces through stuff instead of exploding?" The man inquired as he nailed a Beowolf in the chest.

" **I am afraid that is classified."** Markus said as he fired a 3-round burst at a Beowolf that was covered in scars.

"We will see how tight lipped you are when tossed into the Brig." Michael retorted which was answered by a light chuckle from Markus.

3 individual sounds of aircraft engines appeared from over head of Markus as he looked up to see a bull head shine light at him while the 2 fighters flanking It rained down fire on the advancing Grimm with their rhythmic *THUMPS*.

Markus honed senses detected the barrels of rifles about to be aimed at him again. With an internal sigh, he spun around on his heels while grabbing hold of the rifle on his right and clubbed the soldiers on the left with It in one go (thanks to how close they were) so hard that the rifle broke and the 2 of them were sent sprawling to the ground, clutching their guts while Markus merely grabbed the 2 on his right by their faces and had said faces slammed down to the ground in one giant ***THUD***.

He was so fast that none of them even had the time to shout in surprise or pain. Markus's brain registered the sounds of 2 ropes dropping down with people on them while his sixth sense registered a person about to drop on him.

Markus rolled out of the way as light was shone around him and came face to face with a tanned woman in similar uniform to Gretchen's, had black hair done in a bun with deep green eyes while another green stripped soldier grappled down.

The second soldier to grapple down being similar to the former one but had a star shape on his helm and chest plate with 4 stripes on his arms, small faded out scars covered his exposed chin and looked like a man of age and experience from looks alone.

He was about to say something but the woman who had to be an aura infused specialist darted forward with 2 short sabres being outstretched behind her back.

This action would had been nearly untrack able by normal humans or novice aura users at that but Markus wasn't exactly your average human as he had experience of fighting fast demons that would had killed him if he didn't adapt to them right on the spot, the scars showed his trials and errors.

Unfortunately for the woman he, had fought things that were much faster and lethal than her as she was about to slash Markus's head clean off.

Her comparatively smaller hands were seized by large one as they were harshly twisted upwards by Markus in an attempt to drop her weapons but he failed, streams of light covered her hands and her expression was lightly in pain.

As such she attempted to get away from Markus by planting her boots on his chest and jumping away, this barely effected Markus as his brute strength made sure her efforts of pulling away were in vain while her heels dug into powerful armour. Struggling noises could be heard as she

Markus instead glanced at the soldier who seemed more authoritative. The both of them sized up one another while the fighters just above their heads laid down fire on the Grimm with subtle streams of red light while the bullhead shone the spot light on Markus's position as the sound of Its engine drowned out the sound of anything that could have been heard.

The soldier that grappled down went to check on the recently wounded while the soldier with a more authoritative demeanour reached into a pocket and lit a cigar of all things while inhaling smoke.

"Name's petty officer George tin, you smoke brother?" He said offering a cigar and a light.

" **Ah a man who knows that he may get what he wants through peaceful actions, instead of actions that may or may not result time in the ICU ward. I don't smoke but the peace offer is appreciated soldier."** Markus replied with amusement.

The petty officer let out a few puffs before he replied. "Don't mind my wife's antics here but shouldn't you be paralysed right now or you have a powerful semblance that over powers my wife Jenna's semblance, as she can paralyse an opponent by having their own aura choke their bloodstreams out." He said while pointing his cigar hand at him with the butt of the cigar acting as the finger.

" **I am afraid to disappoint your wife but I don't have an aura."** Markus replied casually.

"Well you see here I don't exactly have the time to test this out so I am just going to shoot you in the leg to confirm that you aren't another new breed of Grimm that came out of the wood works to screw us over, hope you don't mind." The man asked as he unholstered the pistol in his back pocket.

Markus without looking at her, dropped Jenna with a dull thud after releasing her wrists and raised his left leg towards the direction of the officer. **"If it keeps your trigger-happy soldiers in check than by all means."**

The red dust bullet had left the chamber with a * **POP*** and collided against his leg armour, the round barely did anything aside from heating up his armour and leaving a scorch mark that could probably be scratched off.

"Well I be! Looks like you're just a wanna be Grimm, your armour is really intimidating and you have some unique weaponry as well as an impressive kill count for an aura-less user but aside from that, cosplaying at a time like this is really not appreciated right now." The man said in a sassy tone which earned a sigh from Markus as he wasn't really in the mood.

" **Look I just want to help you all out and be out of your hair as soon as possible."** Markus reasoned with the man.

"Look brother, I have orders right now to bring you back to the warship immediately for questioning. The higher ups won't leave you alone If you attempt to run away or fight us as they want to know what your deal is, just listen to us and I will make sure that you get rewarded and even get in a spot inside the specialists while leaving the punishment part of attacking my boys out." The pleading tone of the petty officer gave Markus subtle hints of not telling the truth.

He was about to respond until large ***BOOM*s** and ***CAW*s** stopped Markus to look up, the sight made his blood ran cold.

The oversized air borne Grimm with its dying breath, had grappled onto the starboard engine compartment of the escort classed warship with Its claw and started clawing at the engines with each slow claw strike heralding an explosion, the beak of the Grimm was smashed into the command deck which led to the ship losing control and slowly going down also coupled with the weight of the Grimm.

The ship was falling towards the walls of the fort, with fires on the command bridge and engine compartment leaving a black smoke trail as It fell while the decaying corpse of the air borne Grimm left a trail of black visibly withering flesh. The only thing Markus and his guests could do was stare in sheer horror.


	5. Chapter 4

**AN: Thank you all for checking my story out as I am an amateur writer, reviews will help me out in learning how to improve my writing and what you think of the story so far. If you like my story than you can also follow me as well by making an account that takes 40-80 seconds at best or you can use said account to leave a review that will provide me with much-needed feedback. Aside from that let's get this show on the road with a bismillah and may Allah bless you all!**

 **PS: I will be bolding sounds in fighting scenes only to make sure they don't get repetitive.**

Markus body went into overdrive as he grabbed a hold of Jenna and George by the scruffs of their neck, the close proximity of the resulting explosion would send in fragments of metal towards them that would potentially hit something vital.

He would wish to avoid any harm of these men for the sake of Allah even though them being potentially injured and as such being less of a pain in the hide to Markus, by them not being able to stop him properly from fighting the Grimm; thanks to their injuries.

" **FIND COVER IMMEDIATELY!"** Markus yelled in an attempt to break the marines out of their fear-induced stupor.

He sprinted towards the downed aircraft with long strides as George and Jenna were dragged behind him by his brute force, their shrill screams ignored by the armoured titan as his subtle thuds carried him forward.

Markus saw that the 2 marines he struck with the rifle were slow in getting up and were mostly unreachable by the rest of the marines who had already begun sprinting for cover haphazardly, as such he tossed his current occupants with enough force to get them over the ridge formed by the downed bullhead.

He clasped his hands around their waists and practically dove into cover where the rest of the marines were located, the sound of a large thump of Markus colliding with the soldiers was muffled by the louder sounds of the ship's explosive crash, metal screeching and groaning violently while the ammunition depots of the ship exploding followed by the ground shaking as well.

Markus ducked his head out of cover to survey the scene of carnage before him. Various pieces of metal fragments and other scorched chunks littered the field, the grey gatehouse which was at first proper and pristine with various Atlassian banners and flags dotting It, was now a resting place of the Atlas escort ship as the ship had forcibly lodged Itself into the structure and had become a part of It by reducing most of It to a mix and match of rubble and rent yet scorched metal with the former being more than the latter. Top It all of dust and snow had caused a literal fog to take place blocking visibility, though it eventually settled down after a few moments while leaving crackling golden fires in its wake.

The sounds of rampant gunfire had practically halted yet occasionally could still be heard over the sounds of fire and still exploding sections of the ship, meaning that the Grimm had still survived even though a sizable chunk of their force was gone.

The entire section of the ship that was exposed to Markus had various fires on It with certain sections having Its lights flickering followed by subtle blue sparks, signifying that there was somehow power remaining in the ship even though the impact should have destroyed any form of power system, to begin with, or conventional power systems back at home at least so he didn't give It too much thought.

He felt a tug on his cape to find George having his hand on It. "Get down you idiot, the reactor is about to go out!" The rest of the soldiers were already doing what the officer haggardly told them and were lying prone on the cover with none of them peeking out of It.

Markus did what the man said as he knew that he had no reason for lying and trusted him. The bullheads that were near them performing various tasks were pulling away from the escort ship crash site like a bat out of hell with roars of their engines.

Many of the bullheads had already cleared the base with the bullhead right above them was slow in doing so but made It to safety a good kilometer away, by that time a growing flash (lens flare) of ethereal blue light appeared on the ship's heavily damaged engine section that the airborne Grimm had clawed at.

It intensified by the second with short bursts of _***WHOOP**WHOOP***_ sounds accompanying It. After 10 seconds a circular wave of ethereal blue light appeared that expanded like a dome, Markus noticed subtle sparks that accompanied the wave and seemed to sap the electricity out of electronic devices. ' _An Electro. Magnetic. Pulse discharge.'_ Markus mentally came to a conclusion as the wave approached him.

As the wave passed through him, his E.V helmet flashed with various text of binary data flickering on his screen before white text that he could actually understand appeared. **"EMP DETECTED, REBOOT IN PROGRESS."** It stated and with that Markus's E.V helmet rebooted while his present company's electronic devices short-circuited as the marines tossed their phones, microphones and earphones on the ground with curses accommodating them while Jenna simply chucked them all with a calm yet tense expression.

' _Excellent, more important things I may have forgotten about my own stuff. Hope the tablet can cover me in that regard.'_ Markus mentally scolded himself for more forgetfulness while he and his company rose from their cover.

The entirety of the base had gone dark thanks to the E.M.P, the only illumination the human defenders can get in the burnt charcoal grey cloudy sky is through the fires that dot the walls and burning wreckage of the escort ship. A thick fleshy layer of black smoke with chunks of still decaying Grimm flesh from the corpses of the lofty bird Grimm and other Grimm covered the destroyed gatehouse with the fires casting a very dark shade of orange on the surrounding areas.

Markus knew that the soldiers were barreling towards despair and couldn't believe the sight in front of them due to him theorizing It was their first time facing horrendous casualties as most of the soldiers remained rooted to their positions, stiff like stone and jaws open with fast breathing.

Slowly, some of them had their weapons dropped to their sides one by one while the rest of them had their shoulders sagged in shame for allowing this travesty to happen in the first place, George and Jenna remained unmoving as well with their gazes locked at the burning inferno.

' _These men are not mentally strong enough to put the mourning of their comrades on hold If they idle for too long, I will need to put them to work immediately or else they will decide It's a good time to deal with that task right now and further decrease our chances of survival than It already is.'_ The armoured Mujahedeen concluded his next course of action.

" **MARINES!"** His shout gained the attention of everyone as they jerked their heads towards him. **"Form a perimeter around the area and make sure you keep your eyes peeled out for any movement, engage If anything comes towards you and signal friendly aircrafts that you have eyes on."** He finished his order by turning his gaze towards George for permission to order his men, who was having the eyes of said men on his back while he looked into the flames.

"Do what he says." The answer came out after a short pause while Jenna rested a hand on his shoulder for support, the soldiers and the now conscious pilots fanned out slowly with pistol and rifles drawn. ' _At least they are doing something now, their training must have been less intense than back at home or else they wouldn't need me doing something but they are soldiers that have training none the less so It will kick in sooner rather than later.'_ Markus thought as he approached to talk to George however, Markus heard the now familiar sounds of a bullhead's engine above him.

It landed a few meters away from Markus and Its doors opened immediately with 2 soldiers rushing out and forming a perimeter with the rest while the male pilot of the aircraft approached George, his expression like everyone's else, blank by his wide visor helmet.

He spared a glance at Markus while muttering something about "An off-grid huntsman" before approaching George and offering a salute.

"Sir I have some valuable intel from the headquarters, Lt General Ironwood is en route with a mechanized infantry division and a fleet that will arrive in one hour, 2 If the newly founded reports of the Grimm harassing them is true."

George turned his head towards the pilot and removed his helmet. Revealing light brown hair styled in a buzz cut with a square shaped face and blocky jawline. His grey-blue eyes were dull yet held a sense of warmth for the man in front of him, which Markus knew was mostly reserved for friends in dark times.

"Well Tim, that's just about great but how do they expect us to hold this place for so long without any form of reinforcements? That escort class ship was the only thing with enough firepower to keep the Grimm at bay, with It gone the base is as good as dead." His voice was half-hearted and a sheer contrast to the authoritative yet calm demeanour Markus witnessed today.

With a sigh Tim replied. "When comms was up and running while the ship was going down, air chatter reached HQ and It immediately ordered a full evacuation of all military personnel in fort Maxim to the nearest combat free outposts. Within the given circumstances of all remaining evac areas not being overrun, no reports of large airborne Grimm forces converging on us and if the there is no major dust supplies left that cannot be airlifted out of here. In short, the "reinforcements" are to be used to retake fort Maxim instead of actually reinforcing It." A scowl on his face of mentioning the last bits of his report while Markus' face was morphed in confusion.

George brushed a hand through his hair while repressing the urge to shout as he exhaled in frustration before replying. "Unbelievable, no doubt they put a heavy emphasis on the remaining dust cargo containers, didn't they? First, those SDC bastards fly off with their own ship instead of helping out and now they want to save more dust than people, they put a huge emphasis on getting the dust part... didn't they?" He replied with his eyes narrowed and after a short pause.

"A full promotion and everything really but they also emphasized on the part to evacuate military personnel only because as far as they are concerned, all civilians left on that SDC ship that flew to the capital." Tim left the words hanging in the air with George having a look of disbelief on his face which Markus was again confused by.

"You're kidding, right? There are practically 1000s of Faunus inside that base! We can't just leave them to die!" He roared while grabbing Tim by the shoulders while Markus soon realized that blatant racism was at play by the Atlassian high command.

"Sir they specifically told me that any bullhead carrying a Faunus inside It instead of a soldier will have all its occupants court marshalled, with little to no civilian coverage or help meaning the council has shafted us all big time." A scowl covered his feature while his tone was bitter as well while ignoring the hands on his shoulder, his gaze then looked over at Markus who was, for the most part, thinking about the Faunus.

' _Racism is something which is the broad term of incompetence due to the simple fact that It is done on laughable reason, it's pitiful really that things like that exist in front of annihilation but alas stupidity and ignorance reign in a faithless world where the illusion of security is established.'_ Markus bitterly thought.

"They also reported a golden meteorite spawning from the sky and landing on fort Maxim they described It's shape as humanoid with a black centre and wanted us to mark Its impact site. Why do I get the feeling that he is the thing that HQ described?" His voice was shifting more to an exasperated one by each word.

Letting go George was about to ask Markus before Jenna of all people talked. "I can assure you he didn't as he has no aura to survive a fall from that height." Her speech and eyes alone told Markus of how much skilled and intelligent she was as they held a certain predatorial feeling to them and he further concluded that her first attack was nothing less than a mock attack that would gouge his skill.

Markus was very keen on letting the Atlassian military make up Its own harmless assumptions about him rather than risk alerting his enemies through an easily corruptible and power-hungry government that may or may not be infiltrated by the black hand. **"You are absolutely correct madam, I am just a random huntsman that decided to take up arms and help his fellow people out though the reception by the military has been... less than tolerable."**

"And that's a conversation for another day, we have to focus on getting the hell out of here." George locked his gaze with Markus. "What do you intend to do?"

Markus ran the information inside his head while cupping his chin. ' _Come on Markus, the Black Hand has a tendency of having a powerful and intelligent leader commanding the rabble, take the leader out and the rabble becomes prey to skirmish tactics and internal strife. What's the Grimm you have spotted that fits that category?'_ He mentally inquired himself before the answer struck him like a bullet which he thanked Allah for.

" **What's the status of that 15-foot tall horned Grimm that was spotted earlier?"** His question was directed at George.

"My friend, the fiery breath that Grimm has will burn you to your bones even with your aura, which you don't have by the way. Try to get close to It and use the best hunter grade dust bullets and melee weaponry on It and those will ping right of It like a rock on metal. We lost 3 specialists to that thing and our best fighter Danial was fighting a losing battle against It by the last time I still had contact with him. There is this weird recent wound on Its neck that somehow resembles a hunters grade dust round that pierced through its neck armour but..." He trailed off as realization donned on him with his eyes widening behind his helmet.

"Don't tell me that you somehow caused that?" The conversation had caused nearby eavesdropping soldiers to subtly shift their head while his current company were wide-eyed.

" **I have a new form of dust round that can pierce through targets instead of exploding on Its surface, does less damage on the outside but vital areas are shredded when an exit wound is formed."** Markus replied nonchalantly, leaving no hints of doubt about his made-up façade.

"Warrior, don't take this the wrong way but that Grimm is the definition of brutal and cunning as It has orchestrated a fall of an _Atlassian_ Base of all things! Don't you think you are way over your head in hunting down a Grimm like that? Besides you haven't exactly fought with what the best I could offer while men way above me are struggling with the Grimm" Jenna said attempting to dissuade him from hunting down the Grimm.

"The offer still stands, come with us and we will provide you everything you need. Fort Maxim isn't worth dying over no more." George's voice had a pleading tone to It that hinted at not wanting more bodies thrown in the meat grinder.

As if on cue a guttural roar was heard from the destroyed gatehouse with the flaming wreckage of the ship on top of It, debris and chunks could be made out from a far moving with each grab of an infamous clawed hand. It continued upwards with the occasional sighting of the large Grimm climbing up and moving in and out of destroyed debris until the horned Grimm's silhouette was barely made out from the fires and smoke on the devastated command deck of the ship.

Pure rage could be felt from the beast as Markus saw Its eyes scanning for something like a predator about to catch Its prey until It's raging red eyes found his. It visibly pointed a clawed finger at him and uttered words that only he could understand.

" **هل ستسمح بحدوث هذا مجددًا؟"** The voice was twisting and echoing with each spoken letter, resembling that of a dying whale while giving of a bastardized mocking tone that mirrored one of a human.

Suddenly Its veins exploded with blood coming out of them like a fountain, red energy sparked and rippled on Its whole body, shaking It and piling up around It until all of It was fired upwards in a pillar of blood and red energy.

The red pillar pierced through the clouds and cast a shade of crimson on the sky, interestingly a string of red energy had tethered on the Grimm while providing further illumination to the area which the humans found even further unsettling things revealed.

Roars erupted all over the area with silhouettes of Grimm being made out in the distance stampeding towards fort Maxim. Their eyes that at first showed hints of anger befitting of beasts like them were now the pure definition of pure primal rage, their eyes resembled that of a berserker with their jaws snapping and opening accompanied by growls while their bodies and claws were a blur as they did everything in their power to find footing in the snow and end the lives of the miserable humans as soon as possible.

The blood red pillar acted like a beacon from Grimm and remained there even after the horned Grimm retreated back to the inside of fort Maxim with the tether on It, drawing monsters and other demons to a literal hellscape while unexplainably energizing them to the point of causing them to go into a wild frenzy.

Each and every human with Markus were having collective chills roll down their spines, despair and fear ran rampant in their hearts with the sweat dropped looks they were giving to one another, moments before an argument started over 'what to do' and 'how to reach safety'. Jenna was about to ask George on when they will leave until she found Markus, he had his left hand covering his face with a fist while his right was clawing at his neck with light weird cough sounds.

It looked as if he was choking on something so she moved near him to give help him out only to realize the sound he was making wasn't that of choking.

It was one of stifling laughter.

Her eyes widened out of shock and she backed away from him, this action had not gone unnoticed by him as his eyes locked onto hers and started laughing which was hoarse and unsettling to his present company. On the spot, some labelled him as crazy while the more experienced troops labelled him as a soldier who had lost It to the situation.

For the first time she met him, she felt her disciplinary leash on her fear loosening by each laughter that stung at her ears. Her brain went into overdrive in attempting to decipher the person in front of her, her deciphering skills were something taught to Jenna by birth and never failed her. She prided herself in deciphering people and situation in a matter of minutes and using the revealed information to defeat them and claim the position for fort Maxim's 5th most dangerous fighter.

' _He was doing fine just before the situation had gone to hell but his body language was calm yet ready to spring into action in a moment's notice when I saw him fighting against Grimm, his movement was calm and fluent while he was opening fire and tearing Grimm to pieces. Meaning he's a skilled warrior who must have survived overwhelming odds before but that horned Grimm, it had Its eyes and finger pointing at him as If It was challenging him..."_ Her eyes widened at the conclusion of her mental investigation and after finding confidence by inhaling and exhaling asked him.

"YO-You understood it didn't you?" Her answer was still filled with fear and a strong sense of panic. The accusatory answer had drawn the attention of others around him.

Markus abruptly stopped his laughter as soon as It abruptly had begun and returned to his normal position, all of the attention was drawn to him as nearly everyone was unnerved by him. He tilted his head and replied.

" **Well aren't you very perceptible miss Jenna."** It sounded as If he wasn't exactly impressed by that. **"It mocked me when I am at my strongest which I found really funny that is and didn't mean to unnerve any of you. To answer your question, I did as it spoke in a twisted version of my mother tongue and bellowed 2 challenges at me."** He held up an index finger and middle finger on his right hand.

" **The first challenge It spoke about was "Can you truly stop this from happening again?". You see my nation was overwhelmed by incursions of the... Grimm."** As he made sure to repress the name of the black hand after a short pause. **"The streets ran red with blood while centuries of hard work and dedication was lost overnight, back then we weren't prepared and the ones accountable for our ruination were ourselves as we had abandoned our own religion in the name of mortal distractions and ignorance,"** His eyes then shifted from the intently listening troops to his body. **"But now, a new generation of soldiers have come forward from the flames of our damnation that serve no one but our god Allah and he demands the destruction of evil, falsehood and hypocrisy from within our ranks."**

Retracting his middle finger with a sigh while leaving his forefinger up, he continued. **"The second challenge would be is the use of my beloved religion's tongue from Its foul mouth and bastardizing the words of It. You see many sacred religious sites and texts were defiled with blood and flesh, preachers and followers had their corpses strewn about on streets while the Grimm made corrupted religious texts that resembled the dialects of our holy verses on the walls of our cities. This is a punishable offense that is only answered through by death for evil beings like the Grimm who are far gone for forgiveness and taunt us again and again by using our sacred language"** Venom dripping from his words that was apparent enough for everyone while the weak-willed paled on the spot thanks to the horrific details, from the man's recount of his past.

"So, it gave off 2 challenges. One of killing it and preventing the fall of fort Maxim and the other one of using your religious tongue, am I correct?" George attempted to make sense of the statement.

" **You are mostly correct Mister George but the prevention of the fall of fort Maxim part is where you are dead wrong, as I intend to prevent the fall of Atlas itself. How may you ask? Well, the answer is very simple. The fall of fort Maxim will orchestrate a chain of events that will mostly cause anarchy and mass panic in all of Atlas, Grimm activity would spike too uncontrollable levels and other precedented factors would come out to play. Not to mention the fact that if news got out of the ill-treatment of the Faunus than any form of civil activist movement would have the basis of going violent so I would like to ask you this to confirm my suspicions, is there a movement like that and do the Grimm hone in on fearful or angry humans as I didn't really have the time in interrogating and dissecting many aside from one."** The question seemed abrupt and confusing to Markus's accomplices as they were giving subtle glances to one another with confused expressions until George spoke up.

"Well those things are true, in the form of the White Fang as the current largest Faunus rights movement but you would have to be living under a rock to not find out by now..." George trailed off as his head started connecting dots in his head.

"You are the one that fell from the sky, aren't you?!" George asked the question with his voice raised and forgetting about his fear.

" **There is no point in lying so I am going to keep this brief, I am a warrior sent by Allah in aiding you all in your darkest hour and purge you from internal and external threats. Tell your superiors that I will hunt down the Grimm where ever possible and do so in the service of our god."** George ran a hand over his face while the rest of the group stared blankly in an effort to process the information through their now apparent fatigue.

"This is getting crazier by the hour, with a brothers damn Grimm invasion and a man claiming to be sent by them." George muttered under his breath.

" **I believe all of us have more pressing matter to do so let's wrap this up. I need a message sent to this Lt General Ironwood, that he is to proceed with caution and under any circumstances not to rush into Fort Maxim until reports of Its death are called in 45 minutes. If he refuses to comply than persuade him as I believe the horned beast has more tricks up Its selves to destroy his forces If the time comes."** Markus said while sending a lethal glare to Fort Maxim.

"And what If we refuse to listen to you and go kill the Grimm ourselves while detaining you?" A marine questioned him.

" **Simple we all suffer and die horrible deaths that are caused more due to stupidity than honourable last stands and besides your evacuation period has expired as the horned Grimm has finally revealed Its ace."** He replied ominously while pointing to the west.

A whole black feathery mass of near uncountable flight capable Grimm had formed at the west side of fort Maxim, blotting out the horizon in doing so. Airborne Grimm of various sizes flapped their wings with the large one's cawing and pecking at the smaller rage induced or ill experienced Grimm to hold their positions.

Said bird-like Grimm were darting all over the ever-growing flock of Grimm, leaving trails of feather and fighting one another to get near their leaders or attack one another as substitutes for humans, while the Grimm who were the clear lapdogs of the leading Grimm fought to maintain order by outright killing Grimm that didn't fall into line; providing much-needed examples to the chaotic flock.

The leading Grimm or elders the locals like to call Grimm that are powerful and intelligent were the size of a bullhead. They gave off a feeling of intelligence and years of experience that Markus could easily classify them as something to be killed on the spot, their methodical flaps of bone armoured wings with the opening and closing of claws spoke wordlessly that they had enough patience to know when to strike as they didn't even bother to send in Grimm to chase down fleeing bullheads or assist the Grimm already inside fort Maxim but were still eager enough to kill.

Their eyes were trained in front of them, with their heads for very brief moments swinging back and forth from fort Maxim to the west. It was clear enough to Markus who they were waiting for as the air borne mass of Grimm was unmoving.

The reinforcements led by Lt General Ironwood.

' _Looks like the Grimm has one hell of a communication network to keep tabs on the upcoming reinforcements, got to look into that later.'_ Markus filled away his thoughts and turned his head to the soldiers.

George gritted his teeth and called his men to board the bullhead the flew off after a moment while Markus marched towards the base with grim resolve growing in his heart with a thought. _'Either I bring victory in the name of Allah by dying a martyr or dispel evil from these lands, either way, Allah calls.'_

* * *

 **Time:** **2:20** **(10 minutes later)**

 **Region:** **Airspace between fort Maxim and the Capital**

Lt General Ironwood smashed a gloved fist on the armrest of his command chair, frustration was seeping through out his body as the command deck of the ship was a cacophony of various reports from the crew manning holographic screened consoles, on the status of the ship's power systems and other important systems by the engineering officers, targeting gunners calling out each and every shot they were taking, the security officers redirecting knights, marines and specialists to malfunctioning hanger bays thanks to them being used as beach heads by the Grimm and communication officers keeping track of friendlies and coordinating bullheads against the mass of Grimm. The light-skinned black-haired captain of the ship effortlessly gave off orders in response to the incoming reports with a stoic demeanour.

The fleet had come into direct assault from all directions, main turret and weapons of the ship didn't even have the chance to do significant damage as the enemy ambushed them under the cover of the night. The flagship Ironwood in was a standard Icepick class cruiser that had large turrets and cannons that were used to deal with long-range combatants and only had 4 flak turrets on the upper and lower levels of the ship to fight off any Grimm that got too close. This unfortunate weapons loadout was also mirrored by the rest of the ships in the fleet as well.

The fleet Itself was in a tight arrow formation meaning that flak turrets were the only thing that could not risk friendly fire to other ships but that meant the Grimm would be dispatched in a time-consuming manner that James did not want, in that regard James rose from his seat and turned to the captain of the ship. Blue and red lights of flak fire were peering through the dustproof windows of the ship as he walked towards the captain.

"Captain, we need to hurry as soon as possible so why aren't the main turrets being used to target the Grimm?" He inquired.

Without even turning the captain replied "We will risk friendly fire thanks to the close proximity of the fleet and that is something I am not willing to risk."

"Well spread them out and get those main batteries online and firing or else the Grimm will pick them apart!" Ironwood shouted and motioned to the lower deck and upper deck security cams where the Grimm were clawing and slashing at the batteries.

"Sir the ships are covering one another's blind spots thanks to the flak turrets we have in the range of one another, spread them out and we leave the fleet exposed. Which I am not going to threaten them for a base that has been deemed lost by the council and especially not for the lives of stinking animals inside It." The captain finally turned to James and offered him a glare.

' _You mean you are not going to threaten your flawless reputation and promotion, you deluded idiot.'_ He thought with annoyance and rage before the task at hand stopped a harsh rebuttal and replied to him.

"Then have the brothers damn ships on different altitude and then open fire! Or are you that fearful about your precious ships that you can't even use them when push comes to shove." The Lt General replied in an attempt to bait the man in action.

"Listen here you piece of shit! Those guns will be down and out by the time the ships get into position unless you have an answer to that. The fleet will go slow and play it safe." James was about to respond but was cut off.

"Sir! We are receiving an emergency message from fort Maxim; a bullhead is in range!" A female voice cried out to distinguish herself from the mess of sounds, with both the men turning to the comms officer.

"This is petty officer George Tin bringing in news for Lt General Ironwood, a new breed of Grimm has successfully breached fort Maxim with a horde and has an entire armada of airborne Grimm and a handful of elder Nevermore waiting for the reinforcements arriving at fort Maxim. The fleet is to move at a cautious pace and deal with each threat one step at a time unless the death of the new breed of Grimm spotted in fort Maxim is reported in after 35 minutes. I suspect to believe that It is the leader of the Grimm and as such have men working on It to kill the damn thing. The bullhead is running out of juice thanks to the load so we are making a landing at the flagship just in case the message isn't heard, George tin out."

The newly founded intelligence report had the captain smirking while James simply stretched his body to the side with the metallic armour on his uniform and utility belt that contained his ammo and hand cannon rattled. He reached a hand in his back pocket and retrieved his scroll.

"Commander Hanz have your men and any available reserve marines, knights and specialists that are on standby on each ship, prepared to move out on my orders. Have each and every one of them equipped with the newly supplied magnetic boots, if they aren't available than have the on-board ordnance engineers make them on each ship's ordnance station as soon as possible and shipped to the quartermasters ASAP. We will clear the decks of each ship out and have the batteries firing again once the captain gets the ship into position, if he doesn't then I am sure he won't mind the insubordination complaint I will file in the military court that may or may not put a heavy strain on his spotless record."

"I am sure he won't mind that sir; just give me five minutes and I will get the boys mobilized, I can't wait to use the new snow transport trucks and recon cars after helping the air boys." The mature voice answered from the scroll with excitement in It.

James walked towards the door out of the command deck with the sound of his metallic boots clicking against the floor and a satisfied twitch of a grin on his face, If Ironwood had turned towards the captain at that moment.

Then he may have spotted his pale green eyes turning red irises that promised pain and suffering, before quickly returning to their natural colour and shifting back to the crew.

* * *

 **Time:** **2:24** **(14 minutes later)**

 **Region:** **Fort Maxim**

Danial Bronze awoke from unconsciousness by a slap to the face, his vision was the very definition of groggy and his hearing was filled with noises of gunfire as a deep gash at his forehead oozed blood on his ash-covered light-skinned face that sported a military haircut fate.

After waiting for his eyes to clear up, he found that his wound was being worked on by a field medic with a medkit opened up on his side and 2 marines with one of them holding him down and the other one shining providing light on him with a blue dust crystal.

The three of them were blocking his field of vision with the sky behind them going crimson, the pain that was coursing through his body was slowly going away as his aura was doing its job.

"Hold him down! I am going to apply disinfectant, field dress that wound and apply an aura booster for good measure. It may ache a bit sir as I have run out of painkillers so stay with me."

The medic worked for 5 minutes as the sounds of battle raged on in front of him, Danial gritted his teeth as the roars of Grimm could be heard over the barks and cracks of rifle and metal going through flesh, signifying that the Grimm were closing in on an unspecified force of marines and specialists that may or may not be chopped in half.

After the medic had done his job and ran off to other cries for assistance, the Marines pulled him up and gave him his peak cap which he put on after brushing dust of It and his maul that he called "Hale Swan". The aura booster was coursing through his veins and would be active for an hour or 2 before aura fatigue would kick in but immediate body movement would cause a cramp, as such he inspected his weapon for damage before moving out.

The maul resembled an industrial sledgehammer with It being openable on the top section of the maul Itself, which allowed the 2 double-barreled shotguns (arranged in rows) to poke out of it as an opener or an ender of a fight as the maul Itself would be exposed in its range state thanks to how weak the section with the shotguns poking out would become.

The maul was white in colour with the Atlas insignia inscribed on the 2 striking sides of the hammer, the pole Itself was in a simple grey and had a pommel attached on Its back end that could also open up and accept 8 shotgun rounds with a pump attached on the pole section that was near to the maul.

His muscles were starting to relax a bit as the aura boost that he felt started becoming more controlled and natural instead of a torrent of raw energy. His grey swing coat with military decorations on the left breast and the map of Solitas that had his base marked with a blue dot was dirty with ash and dust, the coat ended just above his knees and was split from the back to allow for full mobility.

The blue army trousers he wore were sporting cuts on the lower half meaning that someone pulled him out of rubble, looking around he found that his right-hand bald and spectacled man Nava White was organizing a defence by rounding up troops and getting them to spread out in the snow-covered courtyard of the base. A troop of 12 specialists were marching just behind him and towards Danial.

Danial shifted his gaze to the red pillar just above the courtyard, the pillar up close was ominous and evil with each swirl of blood and red energy that coated It. He couldn't stand to look at that thing and he didn't even bother to deduce what that pillar was but one thing was clear from It.

They were on their own for more than an hour with that horned creature breathing in on them, the best part is that a good chunk of the security forces mechanized forces were out thanks to that E.M.P blast including communications with It, how many remained to be seen though as Nava mostly kept track of up to date things.

The specialist's expressions were grim, their uniforms which consisted of grey blazer jackets and simple blue trousers were stained with sweat and dust while his uniform was snow cameoed.

"What's the status of our forces and how many injured do we have?" Danial questioned with his navy-blue eyes looking around.

"Not good sir, out of the 600 deployed knights. 256 of them were killed in the initial stages of the siege with the rest now offline thanks to the E.M.P blast, their bodies are spread out all over the base." His ball head shifted to the destroyed gatehouse or more importantly the rubble where robotic bodies stuck out from piles of rubble with varying degrees of body part sticking out to the cold air.

"Out of the 800 humane security forces, 400 private S.D.C guards evacuated with the non-military administrative staff through the S.D.C 's private escort class ship, 19 marines have been confirmed KIA with over 111 of them pulling back inside the base due to panic or evacuation of the wounded out of the battlefield while the remaining 370 soldiers are setting up at the courtyard." He gestured to the marines who were placing 15 sandbags in an arc around the breach point of the fort and taking up position on the buildings just behind them.

The buildings in front of the gatehouse were 3 heavy duty warehouses which were barrel-roofed and took up so much space that the only thing between the gatehouse and the warehouses was a small processing facility and a former fleet of transport trucks and forklifts just behind It.

Why former may you ask? What is the first thing a company like the S.D.C should think of If one of their financial assets is about to be destroyed? Why do everything in their power to salvage anything that isn't bolted to the ground with no regards to sentient life!

Danial still remembered the sound of his teeth churning when he was ordered by the onsite S.D.C director Conrad Sunray, to have his men drive those shit for stained S.D.C trucks and forklifts that carried dust and state of the art machinery to their ship and when he refused and told them to do it themselves or have the Faunus do It and take them as well while they are at It.

He was told one thing that nearly flung him over the edge. _"Mister Danial, this is a luxury class S.D.C ship that is only reserved for the best and brightest. We won't allow filthy animals besmirching our prized asset and we won't sully our hands of transporting things reserved for animals. Besides you don't want the good General losing support in the council now do you?"_

Danial relented to him for the sake of his old man and smiled at the activities of his men and the Faunus, who now had converted the processing facility to a makeshift supply depot where the Faunus would bring in any form of ammunition, weapons and medical supplies they could find scattered all over the base with the tension that once existed between the two group was now abandoned in a vital effort to stop the Grimm.

 ***CRRSSSH*CHUUSSSH*CRRSSSHH***

The sound of glass breaking got Danial to look at the warehouses again, 20 marines were currently taking firing positions on each warehouse's upper level wide horizontal windows by breaking them while 3 squads of 15 marines were scaling the aforementioned warehouse's roofs individually through the use of the ladder on the side of the buildings.

Soon dust rounds started pouring from the Marines elevated position while the grunts on the ground were double timing in setting up the sandbags with the rest of the grunts on the ground opening fire on any Grimm that managed to pass through the flames or navigate through the rubble on the destroyed gatehouse and the destroyed scorched metal remains of the ship.

Varying degrees of ice, fire and electricity dust rounds were fired that illuminated the crimson snow-covered courtyard with a splash of different colours before returning back to its crimson like self, thanks to the red pillar that had spawned on the breach of the fort.

"Good job Nava but have those Marines and the Faunus start fortifying those sandbags in height with anything not bolted down, aside from that what is our air support doing? And how many specialists do we have available?"

"Sir only 5 bullheads and 5 fighters have decided to stuck around to help us and are currently engaging forces that they called out before the E.M.P blast while the rest have taken off with wounded and dust, orders from the capital."

"I have sent Yana and Tera to gather the marines or anyone who can fight for that matter inside the base and bring them here, their speed semblances should help out in that regard. Skimmer and Schefter are right now gaining intel of what we are dealing with if we are lucky than a green flare should go up. As for how many specialists? You are seeing them; the rest were killed earlier." Nava adjusted his spectacles and looked towards the walls where the aforementioned specialists were.

A red flare was shot and screeched through the air, Nava had his brown eyes widened before they returned to their usual drowsy self.

"Please tell me that is good?" Danial hoped even though a surprised demeanour from his friend meant bad things.

With a chuckle Nava replied. "I am afraid not sir, a green flare would have meant that there would be nothing that could stop us I.e. no overwhelming Grimm force which the red flare unfortunately signifies. Basically, all hope of survival is lost and the only thing we can do is make sure the supposed cause of this doesn't survive."

"You mean the Grimm? But they are numberless." One of the specialists, a female one asked.

"Not necessarily but a certain horned one, I theorize the red pillar that It made is linked to It and also linked to the sudden surge of aggressiveness in the Grimm as well." Nava replied.

"Now If I was a 15-foot tall Grimm where would I hide?" Danial thought to himself out loud.

As of on response a red dust crystal the size of a human's chest was chucked through the layer of smoke from the fire, the grouped up human defenders were too late to react as an explosion consumed 15 of them due to how close they were, the majority of them were killed immediately while a few of them were set on fire and being put out by the nearby marines.

Officers immediately cried out for focus fire from where the dust crystal originated from. A large piece of metal was instead forced through the flames and with It, the 2 horned Grimm stomped out.

The non-armoured section of its body which were the joints and other body parts that allowed for mobility, as well as its eyes, were glowing with bright red intensity, signifying blood and raw energy pumping through it.

The head-up close resembled that of a Beowolf with its long bone face mask and razor-sharp teeth, it lacked a tail yet its height and muscular body spoke of great strength and resembled more of a human than a standard Grimm especially the fact on how forged the armour looked. An unexplainable tether or line of some sort that reached to the bloody red pillar was hooked on its back. The claws on its armoured hand were glowing red and with each step, It would soon show what the upgraded versions were capable of doing.

"Nava, space the men out and have them hold fire once we engage the damn thing! The rest of you with me!" Nava nodded and ran off while Danial took off towards his target with his men in tow.

The beast realizing that the humans were about to engage It, tossed its cover at them. Most of the specialists dogged It while Danial stopped It with a downward strike of his maul as to make sure It didn't drift off into the soldiers behind them.

Seeing its move as ineffective, it shot a torrent of flame in an arc that stopped the specialists in their tracks, one of the specialists was too close to the flames and as such had raised his sword instinctively. Unfortunately for him, the armoured Grimm pounced into him with a role that ended with his throat ripped out before he could even realize his doom and tossed his body away like trash.

The humans weren't allowed time to process what had happened as the second specialist fell when an armoured hand slammed her to the ground, blood spurting from her mouth with the red energized claws tearing through her aura like Papier-mâché. The sword-rifle hybrid weapon was dropped immediately by the kinetic force of the impact and the ground cracking underneath her.

The Grimm instead of letting go spun around with her grappled body on an outstretched arm and by using the action's centripetal force. Sent her body rag dolling towards Danial's chest before he could get his guard up, the force of impact was so brutal that It took out half his aura while nearly cracking all his ribs and sent him flying to the marines.

It must have taken him at least 6 marines to fully stop his and the specialist's bodies as a mosh pit of soldiers were covering him and he honestly felt bad for them because they didn't have any aura to protect themselves with.

The marines he injured were on the ground and moving in pain by clutching their stomachs or knees with cracked armour on the respected areas. More marines moved in to check up on them while he powered through his pain and stood up to inspect the specialist on his side.

The blood that was coming out of her was too much so he turned his gaze to the armoured Grimm with a clenched fist while using his maul as a support for walking.

The specialists were circling around the Grimm with standard swords drawn, their movement was swift and untraceable to a normal eye while 3 of them who carried the assault rifle variant were taking potshots at the Grimm through openings of the human tornado. The reason Danial knew this is because It is a textbook attack pattern practised by huntsmen all over the world and was used against a powerful foe that proved to be difficult in a one versus one scenario.

The tactic was as followed, shooters were spread out in different directions so this way attention was drawn to them and after 15 seconds, 2 melee fighters would engage It simultaneously before retreating back information and 2 more pairs would do the same thing before a simultaneous assault from all the melee fighters would execute It.

Danial smirked knowingly as no Grimm was known to survive against this tactic and as such waited patiently for the attacks and even stopped Nava from attacking while the rest of the soldiers watched in awe.

The first strike came towards its left leg, one of the specialists slid for an attack on the back of the knee which was unarmored while her pair jumped and did a midair swing of his sword on the beast's armoured kneecap in the front. The specialists passed over one another with the blood of the Grimm flying on them, the formation shifted direction to account for the pairs switching position.

A cheer erupted from the Marines with various "Hell yeah!", "Make Atlas proud!" and "Go and get them, specialists!". The Grimm itself, however, was glaring vividly at the humans while gritting its teeth.

The attack provided much-needed information to the specialists that their weapons could pierce the Grimm's armour and an overreliance overexposed bits was not needed meaning that they could keep their attacks multidirectional.

2 more strikes followed on the right leg and left arm 15 seconds apart with even more cheers erupting while the Grimm was on all four. The execution phase was soon approaching while Danial was inspecting the Grimm with a critical eye, the Grimm seemed to be in deep concentration as the red energy on its armoured hand was slowly travelling to its leg and throat like those parts were being powered up.

As if it sensed the commander's inspection, it bared its teeth in a mockery of a smile with the opening in its teeth revealing a bright red light that was mostly associated with a super aura powered dust crystal used in ship cannons. Danial didn't like that one but and was about to have his men back off, the sudden pain of his broken ribs soon proved to be too great to ignore and he screamed in pain.

The specialists moved in together, their swords bared and ready to slice the Grimm into pieces. What they weren't expecting was the Grimm to jump and dislodge the red dust crystal in its throat and fling It on the attackers that couldn't move out of the way in time.

The one thing that was dangerous about the dust used in ship cannons was not the mighty explosive damage done by It nor the fragments of it. No, it was the elemental effect of the fire that made it dangerous due to the simple fact that fires created from this type of dust crystal would last for hours or even days.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Danial saw the way the dust crystal exploded on his men, the explosion caught all of them with tiny dust fragments trailing through the air and cutting into his men easily thanks to their auras attempting to stop the explosion. The dust pieces that pierced their skin exploded in a chain reaction thanks to the fire.

Their bodies were sent rag dolling in all directions with missing limbs and destroyed weapons, the ones that were fortunate enough to die on the spot were burning peacefully while the living were trembling in pain. Kicking and screaming as they saw their skin melt from their bones while nothing could be done for them before moments late their screams died down.

A silence had befallen the battlefield, no one dared move a muscle as all eyes were drawn to the fires. Sweat and even tears dribbled down the humane defenders' eyes, knowing that if the best of the best couldn't stop them, how could they? They knew death was waiting for them, Danial, on the other hand, was stunned as well yet the embers of a last stand were growing inside him, he shifted his eyes to Nava. Who was sporting the same look he was, the look of grim determination. _'Me and Nava could buy time for the reinforcements to have someone to save when they eventually arrive.'_ Danial thought to himself and was about to go in an attack with Nava until the 2 horned Grimm roared.

 ***GGGGGGRRRRRRAAAAAAAHHHHHHH***

In response to it, 3 Elder Beowolves and an Ursa Major came forth from the now smoking ruins of the gatehouse. Their arrival was nothing compared to the intimidating presence of the horned Grimm. It was about to give a roar to charge before the sound of gunfire halted It.

 ***THWACK*THWACK*THWACK*THWACK*SHRCK***

With the sound of metal going through flesh, a head resembling of an Ursa Major was tossed out of the smoke, the head rolled out towards the Grimm which caused the Elders and Majors to back away while the horned Grimm barely sifted and instead looked on intrigued.

2 beady eyes made themselves known from the smoke before the form of a 10-foot-tall human finally revealed itself, the humane figure jumped down to the ground with the burning bodies of the specialists illuminating his figure.

He had an unrecognizable pointed helmet with a never before seem non-metallic armour that looked more than likely to be made out of leather yet had a sneaking suspicion that there were other materials at play which were even better than the alloy metal Atlas used.

His spike knuckles were reflecting the fire, with the unrecognizable model of a rifle in his hands the safety trigger switched off.

Those eyes of his were the most intimidating thing about him, he had 2 beady red eyes which were surveying the Grimm. The armoured man's breathing was even like he didn't give a damn what was standing in front of him and after his eyes travelled to the burning corpses on the ground. He aimed his rifle and squeezed the trigger in a movement that would have put many marksmen to sham.

 ***FFFRACK*FFFFFRACK*FFFFFFFRACK*FFFFFFFFFFFFFRACK***

An uncountable burst of bullets flew through the air, the Elders and Major sported holes on the torso and head, their bodies were slowly falling to the ground and already beginning to disintegrate with blood oozing out of them.

The horned Grimm, on the other hand, was slow in processing what had happened to it. 9 rounds had pierced the now cracked armour on its torso which had blood leaking out of it, the Grimm itself was having a hard time in staying conscious before sudden red energy started flowing inside it through the tether on its back.

A bright red blanket coated the Grimm and it let out a head-splitting roar. The wounds that covered its body were filled back up, armour that was sundered repaired itself while the energy it had spent was renewed.

The black geared human merely adopted a middle longsword guard stance, the sharp edge of the sword gleamed red thanks to the Grimm.

The Grimm was a blur, barely untrackable to everyone that it crashed into the armoured soldier within seconds. The soldier blocked the swipe of its claws by the skin of his teeth before kicking the raging beast in the chin and rolling away from the force of the blow, the human offered a swipe that was effortlessly backhanded and instead a punch to the guts was gifted to the human by the Grimm. The punch sent the man flying to the stone wall until a layer of dust was created by the impact.

Daniel couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the soldier get up at record speed and begin charging at the Grimm with blood seeping out from his chest.

He had no aura.

Danial and many others immediately summarized as the man's movement were at best that of a dying tiger forced to fight its final battle.

No sound was made by the soldier when the Grimm chopped his left leg out.

No sound was made by the soldier when his body was crushed and stomped on repeatedly body.

No sound was made by the soldier when his head was separated from his body.

The head was raised towards the human defenders, some of them had started puking on the Gorey site while other kept it in.

" **HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"**

Laughter erupted from the beast's throat who had slain the warrior, further terrifying everyone. Many covered their ears to block out the horrendous sound while those who were still brave started backing away.

" **See you pathetic creatures of god and see well! This is the state of your pathetic excuse of a shield. This man you see here was set to destroy and banish evil from his world and yours but now he is nothing better than a puddle of blood and gore!"** The Grimm tossed the head back to the mutilated body while everyone living were rooted to their place and sweating profusely. The scariest Grimm they ever knew was talking and mocking them, terror ran free in their heart while hushed whispers on "what to do?" were running free.

" **If only there were more people like this man I slew today than humanity and Faunus kind may have stood a chance. Why? That's simple really, this leech you see here is the reason why my beloved mother has painful weeping nights. A month wouldn't pass, where the death of her beloved daughters wouldn't reach her doorstep. Her mind was fractured to the point that she had pooled all her effort into hunting down this man and finally she can rest easy now."** Shifting its gaze to the corpse of the soldier the Grimm spoke again.

" **The funny thing is that most people would be having the emotions of regret, fear or some form of darkness spiralling inside of them like a sweet perfume to us Grimm. Instead, this man was happy! Content! In dying."** Each word was rippled by a stomp on the corpse.

" **In all my life I have yet to kill a living that didn't have its hopes and dreams crushed by me, the fact that he would throw away everything he had for an unloving God as easily as breathing air. Is something that I despise to admit, scares me and my brethren."** The news of the Grimm's fear had caught everyone off guard, their brains couldn't even comprehend on what to make of the news.

" **I shudder to think of fighting an army or humanity as a whole who are even a small piece of him but alas that is not worth thinking now as everyone will be dead. Now, who to kill? Who to kill? Who to kill?"** The Grimm walked on its 2 legs back and forth in front of the terrified humans, repeating the question over and over again to keep the humans afraid. The fear they gave off was the only thing that kept the humans alive as fear was something a tamer and more intelligent Grimm loved to relish in, the sense from the humans was intoxicating to it and was something it loved to enjoy during its free time of not murdering armed combatants.

During that day, one may have considered the light slowly glowing around the corpse of the soldier by the minute, something insignificant or a huge folly on the Grimm's part.

* * *

 **AN2: Hope you enjoyed and may you review or follow my work, thanks for reading and may Allah bless you all!**


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